Lan's Nightmare
by SSBFreak
Summary: Wily's back, and he's kidnapped the two people Lan care about the most. Will Lan pull through this time?
1. The Seemingly Normal Day

Chapter one: The Seemingly Normal Day  
  
One bright Monday morning in ACDC Town, Lan Hikari was at home, doing one of the things he did best.  
  
"Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..."  
  
While Lan lay in bed, snoring like a car engine, his PET, Megaman, sat on his desk, trying to wake him up.  
  
"Lan, it's time to get up." Megaman said.  
  
"Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..." Lan snored.  
  
"Lan, you have to get to school!" Megaman said, a little louder.  
  
"Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..."  
  
"GET UP, YOU DENSE DOLT!" Megaman shouted, causing Lan to spring awake into a sitting position.  
  
"Man! What is it?" Lan complained.  
  
"Hurry up and get dressed, Lan. You're going to be late for school again." Megaman replied.  
  
"You know you're starting to sound like mom?" Lan stated as he got out of bed.  
  
Lan quickly got dressed, grabbed Megaman and rushed downstairs. After having a quick breakfast and said goodbye to his mother, Lan rushed out the door. The young boy wasted no time in getting to school.  
  
After Lan burst through the front doors of the school, Lan rushed down the main hallway and ran upstairs. Lan was running so fast that he almost tripped on one of the steps on the way up.  
  
Lan made his way towards the back door of his classroom and ran inside. In the classroom, everyone was sitting at his or her desk, but there was also a boy at the front of the room with Ms. Mari that Lan had never seen before. The boy looked about his age, with blonde hair and a few streaks of red. He wore a blue hooded sweater and black jeans. Lan swiftly moved to his chair as Ms. Mari started speaking.  
  
"Class, as you know, one of our students and his family has moved to Australia on a student exchange program." Ms. Mari said. "Well, this young boy here is the student we exchanged our other student for and has just moved to town from Australia. This is Jake Harrison."  
  
"G'day, mates." Jake said, slightly bowing his head.  
  
After everyone in the class said his or hers hellos, Ms. Mari pointed to an empty desk.  
  
"Jake, you can take that empty seat beside Dex." Ms. Mari said.  
  
After Jake had found his way to the empty chair, Ms. Mari turned to the rest of the class.  
  
"Now, class? Today we're doing a test on what we've been talking about these past few days." Ms. Mari said as a few groans, the loudest ones being from Lan and Dex, arose from the class. "Well, I'm glad to see that you're all ready to take it." She then turned to Jake. "Uh, Jake? You don't have to take this test, as this is you've never come here before, and haven't been around while I was teaching about this stuff."  
  
"Thank you, Ms. Mari." Jake said politely as Ms. Mari again turned to the class.  
  
"Okay class. Please jack in." Ms. Mari instructed.  
  
Because Lan knew almost everything the test asked, the day went by quickly. Afterwards, Lan and his friends in class were talking to each other and looking at each others report cards.  
  
"Man! That day went by well!" Lan exclaimed. "I managed to snag 93%!"  
  
"Well, you did better than I did." Yai said, looking at her report card. "I only got 87%."  
  
"As much as I hate to say it, Lan did better than I did." Dex explained. "I managed an even 90%, surprisingly."  
  
"Well, at least you're doing better than you used to, Dex." Mayl said before looking at her report card.  
  
"What did you get, Mayl?" Lan asked.  
  
"Uh...I don't want to make you guys feel bad but..." Mayl replied before showing everyone her report card.  
  
"99%?!" Dex said. "How can anyone GET that high on a test like this?!"  
  
Just then, everyone noticed Jake walk over to them.  
  
"Hey, Jake." Lan said with a smile. "How do you like ACDC Town?"  
  
"I love it, mate!" Jake replied. "And I'm even surprised that this town actually uses PETS like back in Australia! Did ACDC Town just get these PETS?"  
  
"Are you kidding?" Dex laughed. "Lan's dad INVENTED PETS."  
  
Jake stared at Lan with wide eyes. "Really, mate?!" He asked. "Never in a million YEARS would I have thought that PETS started out here!"  
  
Lan looked at Jake. "Does that mean that you have a PET of your own, Jake?" He asked.  
  
"Sure do, mate." Jake replied, fishing a PET from his pocket. "Wanna Net- Battle?"  
  
"Sure." Lan said as he pulled Megaman from his pocket. "Let's go!"  
  
Megaman suddenly appeared in the familiar battle arena. He waited for his opponent, who appeared by fading into the arena.  
  
Megaman looked at the new navi. He was taller than Megaman, but not as tall as Gutsman. He wore red and orange armour, complete with a red helmet with a green flame sprouting from it. On each of his arms, there was something that looked like a jet fuel tank attached to each elbow. A green flame was sprouting from each. On his face, he wore black shades. His symbol looked like a pair of flames forming a circle.  
  
"Dude, are you like, ready to fight?" The navi asked in a surfer type voice.  
  
Megaman raised an eyebrow. "What a strange navi." He thought to himself. "I don't think I've seen HIM before."  
  
"Burner Man! You ready, mate?" Jake asked.  
  
"As ready as I'll like, ever be, man!" Burner Man replied.  
  
Megaman stared opening fire on Burner Man, who stood there while charging up the two fuel tanks he had attached to his arms. Suddenly, a continues stream of fire erupted from the tanks, sending out three waves of fire at Megaman, who barely managed to dodge them without getting hurt.  
  
Megaman retaliated by charging up his buster and fired it when fully charged, hitting Burner Man square in the chest.  
  
Burner Man struck a different pose, and all three of the flames, the two fuel tanks and the one on his head, started charging up. Burner Man fired three beams of fire into the air, causing several fireballs to fall onto the arena one at a time. Megaman quickly avoided them, having to run extremely fast to do so.  
  
After about a minute of attacking and counter attacking, both fighters' HP was down pretty low. Burner Man started laughing.  
  
"You're good, dude." Burner Man complimented. "But you have yet to see my TOTALLY cool final move!"  
  
Burner Man leapt into the air and came down. Hard. So hard that he destroyed a full column of tiles on Megeman's side of the arena. Megaman realized that if he didn't act fast, there wouldn't be any tiles for him to fight on. Megaman rapidly fired his buster at Burner Man, eventually wearing him down.  
  
The red and orange navi managed to destroy on more column of tiles before Megaman charged up his buster one last time. Just as Burner Man leapt into the air for the final kill, Megaman fired the buster, which caught Burner Man by the feet, deleting him.  
  
Back in the real world, Lan sighed in relief as Jake stared at his navi with disbelief.  
  
"Y-You actually succeeded in defeating Burner Man, mate!" Jake stated. "Amazing! And my navi held the number one position in a tournament back in Australia! You're unreal, mate!"  
  
Lan jacked Megaman out as he looked at Jake. "Thanks. I've had practice." Lan looked at the clock. It was about three thirty by now. "I'd better get back home before my mom starts worrying about me."  
  
After Mayl, Dex and Yai all said goodbye, Lan turned around and started walking out the door to the classroom. However, he was stopped by Jake's voice.  
  
"Mate, you've got serious skill." Jake complimented. "Let's get together sometime and we'll net-battle again."  
  
"Thanks for the challenge." Lan said. "I'll accept one anytime!"  
  
Lan continued walking until he was off the school property. During his walk home, Lan noticed a TV van parked outside of Higsby's Chip Shop. Lan looked at what was written on the side of the van.  
  
"Ribbita?" Lan asked himself. "What's SHE doing here?"  
  
Lan walked closer to the van and found Ribbita doing an interview with a strangely tall man wearing a red, white and blue jacket, pants and cap.  
  
"I'm here with the well-known stuntman, Super Dave Osborne." Ribbita said into her microphone while looking at the camera. "Who, as I remember, retired several years ago."  
  
"Well, I DID retire." Super Dave replied. "But when I heard that the money being raised to see me do one last, big stunt was going to a special charity, I just couldn't pass up."  
  
While Ribbita continued her interview, Lan noticed a couple a men standing aside. One was American and the other was Japanese. They were both looking at what looked like a PET. Lan walked over to them.  
  
"I'm telling you, Fuji! These 'PET' things are amazing!" The American exclaimed.  
  
"Oh, really Donald?" The Japanese asked.  
  
"Yeah! In his town, you can send these things into the internet and wipe out viruses, you can send them into instruments and make them work properly, you can even send them into a car and give it a tune-up! I think that these things would REALLY catch on back home!"  
  
"You're REALLY serious?" Fuji asked.  
  
"Of course!" Donald replied. "I'd like to shake hands with the genius who invented these things!"  
  
Lan smiled as he walked past them and continued towards his house.  
  
As Lan approached his house, his eyebrow cocked. The front door was wide open.  
  
"What the?" Lan thought out loud. "What's the door to my house doing open?"  
  
"Let's go check it out." Megaman suggested.  
  
Lan entered the house, and his eyes sprang open. The whole house looked like a storm had blown through! Furniture was overturned, pots and pans were lying on the counter and sheets of paper were all over the floor.  
  
"Mom?" Lan called out. "Mom! Are you here?"  
  
Suddenly, Lan heard a bleeping noise coming from his PET.  
  
"Lan, you've got mail." Megaman said.  
  
Lan opened up his new e-mail. He read it aloud.  
  
"Lan Hikari, if you're at your home, you'll notice that your mother isn't there." Lan read. "Don't bother looking for her in the town. I've got her with me as I write you this letter. Don't try going to your father for help. I have him too. If you want to see them again, don't try to stop me this time. Signed, Wily."  
  
To be continued... 


	2. Flaming Frenzy

Chapter two: Flaming Frenzy  
  
Lan stared at the e-mail, a horrified look on his face. Megaman looked at him with concern.  
  
"T-This can't be happening..." Lan whispered, too petrified to talk any louder.  
  
"What do we do?" Megaman asked. "Wily threatened that if we tried to stop him, he'd kill them."  
  
"But that lunatic could be torturing them!" Lan suddenly exclaimed. "Or starving them! I can't just stand around while that's happening! I HAVE to stop Wily!"  
  
"I see your point." Megaman said. "Okay. We'll go after Wily. But I have this feeling that it's not going to be as easy as last time."  
  
"I don't care! Mom and dad are in danger!" Lan replied. "What are we going to do?!"  
  
"First things first, Lan." Megaman stated. "We have to find out where Wily's hiding out. We should stop by the Government Complex and see if your dad dropped any clues."  
  
"Okay." Lan replied. "Let's get over to the subway."  
  
Lan bolted from the house and rushed towards the subway, almost crashing into Dex on the way. Lan rushed into the subway that was heading towards the complex and was on his way.  
  
Soon, Lan arrived at the complex. Lan left the subway and ran into the main yard of the giant building. Outside, the many people who worked at the complex, including Sal and Masa, were gathered around the building, all of them looking like they were frenzied. The only one absent was Dr. Froid. Lan rushed over to a group of people. One of the people was Sal. Lan's green-haired female friend saw him coming.  
  
"Lan! Oh, I'm so sorry that this happened!" Sal exclaimed. "Your father's been abducted!"  
  
"I know." Lan replied. "I got a threatening note from Dr. Wily. But why is everyone out here?"  
  
"Because there's something wrong with the main computer!" A scientist replied. "The main network's burst into flames! If the fire gets any worse, the computer will be destroyed!"  
  
"Wait a minute..." Lan said, looking around. "Where's Dr. Froid?!"  
  
"He stayed inside the complex!" The scientist replied. "He and Iceman are going to try to put out the fire!"  
  
"What?!" Lan cried. "I've gotta go help him!"  
  
Without giving anyone else any time to object, Lan rushed towards the complex, plowed his way through the many people in his way and rushed into the building.  
  
Lan remembered where the main computer was, so he rushed over to the elevator and took a trip down to the lower floor. Once the doors opened, Lan rushed out of the elevator and ran towards the main generator room.  
  
Lan burst through the door to the generator room and found Dr. Froid trying to put out a fire which was slowly spreading with a fire extinguisher. Lan grabbed a second one and ran to assist the scientist.  
  
"Lan! What're you doing here?!" Dr. Froid asked. "Get out of here while you still can!"  
  
"No way, Dr. Froid!" Lan replied. "I'll help you put out these flames while I jack Megaman into the computer and have him put out the internal flames!"  
  
"I've already sent Iceman into the network, but he might need help!" Dr. Froid stated.  
  
"That settles it!" Lan replied as he rushed over to the nearest jack-in port. "Megaman! Let's get these flames under control!"  
  
"You got it!" Megaman replied before jacking in.  
  
In the network, Megaman materialized, immediately being greeted by several flames. Megaman found a break in the flames and rushed through.  
  
"Iceman!" Megaman called out. "Iceman! You here?"  
  
Megaman rushed through the computers network, having to fight off a few Metools in the process.  
  
"Megaman!" Lan's voice cried. "Hurry up! I don't know how long Dr. Froid and I can hold off these flames!"  
  
"I'm hurrying! I'm hurrying!" Megaman replied as he continued through the network.  
  
Soon, Megaman came across one huge flame that was blocking the whole path. Suddenly, Megaman noticed the small navi that was lying on the ground.  
  
"Iceman!" Megaman cried as he rushed over to his small friends side and helped him up. "What happened?"  
  
"Megaman?" Iceman said. "What're you doing here?"  
  
"Don't worry about that now. What happened?" Megaman repeated.  
  
"Well, I was attempting to take down this huge flame, as it seemed like I was going to find what I was looking for behind it." Iceman explained. "Suddenly, I was attacked by Metools and Firetowers and Cannons. I couldn't take on all of them at once, and they defeated me."  
  
"I'll help. You work on taking down that flame. I'll take on any viruses that try to stop you." Megaman said.  
  
"Okay. Sounds like a plan." Iceman replied as he turned to the giant flame and started exhaling.  
  
As Iceman got to work on the flame with his ice breath, Megaman kept a keen eye open for any approaching viruses.  
  
Megaman was quickly swarmed with a group of four Metools. They didn't put up much of a fight, and Megaman pulled out of the battle without a scratch. He turned to his small friend.  
  
"How's it coming, Iceman?" Megaman asked.  
  
"I'm getting there." Iceman replied. "Just give me a few more minutes."  
  
The next viruses Megaman fought was three Cannons. They were each on a different row of squares. Megaman realized that this wouldn't be so easy. If all three cannons fired at once, he wouldn't be able to avoid the shots. Megaman was hit a few times, but he still managed to wipe out all the Cannons. He turned back to Iceman.  
  
"You get through the flame yet, Iceman?" Megaman asked.  
  
"I'm almost through." Iceman explained. "One more wave of viruses and I should have this beat."  
  
Megaman looked ahead. It would be easier said than done to get through this wave, as three Firetowers were floating towards him.  
  
Megaman charged up his buster as one of the Firetowers sent out a stream of fire at him. Megaman quickly dodged the attack and fired a fully-charged buster, which nailed one of the Firetowers, wiping out most of its health. A few normal buster shots and the Firetower was deleted.  
  
As Megaman charged up his buster again, he used a SonicWave chip and used it on one of the remaining viruses. The SonicWave was enough to take out another Firetower completely, and just as Megaman finished charging his buster.  
  
"Two down, one to go." Megaman said to himself  
  
Megaman fired his buster, which nailed the remaining Firetower, draining most of its energy.  
  
"I'm through!" Iceman exclaimed.  
  
Megaman smiled as he fired his buster rapidly. A few quick shots and the last virus was destroyed. Megaman looked over at Iceman.  
  
"Come on! Let's go!" Iceman said.  
  
The duo of navis rushed through the now-open pathway, and came to a large, square area. At the edge of the square was some kind of network terminal.  
  
"There's the main computer!" Iceman stated. "If we reprogram that, we should be able to get this fire under control!"  
  
"Not if I can help it!" A male voice shouted. Megaman looked at a small screen on his arm and found himself staring into the face of a young man with messed up, black hair.  
  
"Hey!" Iceman exclaimed as he looked at Megaman's screen. "That's Dr. Grimsby!"  
  
"Who?" Megaman asked.  
  
"A scientist here." Iceman replied. "I KNEW that there was a WWW operator working in the complex, but I NEVER expected it to be Grimsby." He then looked at the sneering face of the crooked scientist. "You may have fooled everyone in the complex, but Dr. Froid KNEW there was a WWW lackey in the building!"  
  
"Well, I have to admit. He's a smart guy." Grimsby replied. "Pity that he's going to die in all these flames."  
  
"What about Lan's parents?" Megaman asked. "I demand to know what you've done with them."  
  
"Ah, so you DIDN'T listen to Dr. Wily's warning." Grimsby laughed. "I might've expected that. Well, now that the WWW knows that you're trying to stop us, both his parents are going to get it!"  
  
Meanwhile, Lan and Dr. Froid almost had the fire under control, and had heard everything.  
  
"Oh, no!" Lan exclaimed. "They're going to kill my parents!" He then spoke to his navi. "Megaman! That guys probably got a navi! Show him what you're made of!"  
  
"That won't be so easy, my friend." Grimsby replied. "Flame Man! Torch'em!"  
  
Back inside the computer, Megaman and Iceman watched as a navi materialized in front of them. He was shorter than Megaman, but taller than Iceman. His orange and red armour seemed to ignite with all the fire. His symbol was that of Fireman, a navi Lan and Megaman had wiped out a while ago. Two flames spun in circles above his head. Megaman raised an eyebrow in amusement.  
  
"Heh. A cute version of Fireman." Megaman chuckled. "This shouldn't be so hard." He looked at he small companion. "I'll take him out. You focus on putting out any fires."  
  
"Got it." Iceman replied.  
  
Megaman returned his glare to Flame Man.  
  
"I'm gonna take you out SO bad!" Flame Man said in a slightly childish voice. "Let's fight!"  
  
"Whenever you're ready, little brother of Fireman." Megaman chuckled as he and Flame Man vanished.  
  
Megaman materialized on the usual battlefield, with Flame Man on the other side. The battle had begun.  
  
Megaman started unloading his unlimited supply of buster shots into Flame Man's stomach as the WWW navi started hopping around his section of the battlefield.  
  
Flame Man approached the edge of his side of the battlefield and started charging up his flame-thrower. Suddenly, Flame Man sent out a beam of fire at Megaman.  
  
"Hmm..." Megaman thought to himself as he easily avoided the fire beam and continued pelting Flame Man with buster shots. "So far, this guy seems similar to Fireman. I wonder why he's different?"  
  
After taking a few more hits, Flame Man stepped into the middle of his side of the battlefield and was suddenly engulfed in flames. Flame Man quickly fired one beam of fire across the top of the battlefield, one through the middle row and one across the bottom. Luckily, the first fire beam disappeared before Flame Man fired the second beam, so Megaman managed to get into the top row before the middle row was covered in flames.  
  
"Now I can see the difference." Megaman thought as he continued firing his buster. Soon, Flame Man's HP was down to a measly 50.  
  
"Crud!" Flame Man growled. "It looks like I'm going to have to use my third move."  
  
Flame Man placed his hands against the floor and sent out a burst of flaming energy into the floor.  
  
Megaman suddenly started to feel his feet getting warmer. He looked down and saw the panel he was standing on and several other panels on his side of the battlefield starting to flash.  
  
"Oh, crud." Megaman said as he quickly stepped onto on of the few panels that wasn't flashing. Sure enough, pillars of fire erupted from all the panels that were flashing.  
  
Megaman didn't have time to rest though, as several different panels, including the one he was now standing on, were now flashing. Megaman quickly got a feeling of déjà vu as he quickly got onto a non-flashing panel. This was just like fighting Woodman.  
  
Megaman managed to get a few buster shots in before the panels started flashing for the third time. Megaman moved quickly as the fire pillars appeared.  
  
The blue navi took this opportunity to charge up his buster. By the time the third and final pillar wave was finished, Megaman had charged up his buster completely.  
  
As soon as the pillars stopped, Megaman lined himself up with Flame Man and grinned slyly.  
  
"Here's one for the road!" Megaman shouted as he fired his fully-charged buster at Flame Man, defeating him. Megaman warped out of the battlefield.  
  
When Megaman materialized, he found himself staring at a defeated Flame Man, who was trying to catch his breath.  
  
"Man! You're good!" Grimsby complimented. "But I shall have the last laugh!"  
  
"How so?" Lan asked, folding his arms. "Your navi's been defeated."  
  
"You see, I've sent a message to Dr. Wily, who is making residence at the location of the old WWW hideout." Grimsby explained. "Now that he knows that you're trying to stop us, your parents probably won't live to see the light of another day!"  
  
"Do you realize that you've just given away my parents' location?" Lan asked.  
  
"Of course! But you won't be going anywhere NEAR the base for awhile. One of the WWW lackeys that ransacked your house took the WWW Pass that you seemed to acquire." He then called down to his navi. "Flame Man! Dispose of that blue navi!"  
  
Inside the computer, Flame Man had heard his operators order. Flame Man suddenly shot forward and stuck his flame-thrower up to Megaman's neck. Flame Man stared at Megaman, an evil glare in his eyes.  
  
"Let's see if you can stop THIS." Flame Man taunted.  
  
"Hey, Bahamut!" A high-pitched voice called out.  
  
Flame Man turned his head in the direction of the voice and saw Iceman throwing a snowball at him. Flame Man didn't have time to react, for as soon as the snowball hit the ground by his feet, an icicle shot from the ground and pierced the WWW navi, deleting him instantly. Megaman looked at his small companion and gave him a thumbs up.  
  
"Thanks, buddy." Megaman said. "I owe you."  
  
"BIG time, Megaman." Iceman replied.  
  
The two navis walked towards the main computer and Iceman placed his gloved hands at the controls.  
  
"I'm reprogramming the computer." Iceman explained. "This SHOULD get these internal flames under control, and prevent the outside flames from spreading."  
  
Within minutes, Iceman had reprogrammed the computer, and all the internal flames died down instantly. Both navis signaled their operators to jack them out.  
  
After jacking their PETS out of the computer, Lan and Dr. Froid looked at each other.  
  
"Hey, thanks for coming." Dr. Froid said. "I don't think Iceman would've got the computer reprogrammed if you hadn't shown up."  
  
"No need for thanks, Dr. Froid." Lan assured. "But I think we should look for this 'Grimsby' fellow."  
  
"You're right! Let's go!" Dr. Froid replied.  
  
Lan and Dr. Froid searched around the complex for about three minutes until they found Grimsby trying to hide. For the first time, Lan saw what Grimsby looked like in person. He was shorter and Dr. Froid, and even thinner. Dr. Froid picked up the crooked scientist by the coat he was wearing and lifted him off his feet. Dr. Froid looked down at Lan.  
  
"Okay. Let's get out of here and turn this guy in." Dr. Froid said. Lan nodded as they continued walking out of the complex with Dr. Froid still holding Grimsby off the ground.  
  
The duo soon got to the front doors of the complex and pushed them open, walking out into the crowd. By now, the police had arrived.  
  
"Look! There they are!" Someone shouted. Lan could tell from the voice that it was Sal.  
  
The police rushed over to the duo as Dr. Froid tossed Grimsby to the ground.  
  
"We got the fire under control." Dr. Froid said as he looked down at Grimsby. "And we found the man responsible." He looked at the police. "Officers, take him away!"  
  
As the police were taking Grimsby away, the lackey spun around and stared at Lan.  
  
"You may have stopped me, but your parents are in for it now!" Grimsby stated as the officers continued dragging the WWW lackey away.  
  
Meanwhile...  
  
Dr. Hikari slowly rocked his head back and forth as he regained consciousness. When he was fully awake, he looked around. He was in a small, enclosed, gray room with a door at one wall. Dr. Hikari would bet money that it was locked from the other side. Leaning against the opposite wall of the door, sitting on the floor and curled up in a ball, was his wife. She was sobbing heavily. Dr. Hikari quickly made his way over to his wife and sat down beside her.  
  
"Honey? Honey, are you alright?" Dr. Hikari asked. His wife stopped crying for a second and looked at him. Suddenly she threw her arms around him and continued crying.  
  
"Oh, darling! You were unconscious for so long!" Mrs. Hikari explained. "I was worried sick!"  
  
"It's alright, dear." Dr. Hikari assured as he ran his fingers through her dark hair. "I'm fine."  
  
Suddenly, Dr. Hikari heard some people talking outside of the door. Dr. Hikari stopped the embrace with his wife and slowly worked his way to the door. He placed an ear to the door and listened to the conversation.  
  
"I don't BELIEVE that idiot Grimsby!" An older voice shouted. Dr. Hikari recognized the voice as Dr. Wily. "He lost to that Hikari kid and is now arrested!"  
  
Dr. Hikari suddenly felt a sensation of joy. Lan was coming to rescue them.  
  
"Now that we know that the kid's trying to stop us, should we kill the parents?" A second voice asked.  
  
Wily was silent for a moment then finally spoke up. "How long until that machine is finished?" He asked, seemingly changing the subject.  
  
"It's finished. All we need is the three Chaos Drives to power it up." The henchman replied.  
  
"Splendid! We'll spare the parents until we get all three Chaos Drives. That's when we'll take action!" Wily replied.  
  
Dr. Hikari didn't know what Wily meant by that, but it didn't sound good. Not wanting to get his wife worried, Dr. Hikari decided not to tell her about what Wily was planning. Dr. Hikari went back over to his wife and sat down again.  
  
"What is it, dear?" Mrs. Hikari asked.  
  
"I overheard a conversation. Lan's coming to save us and he's already put one of the WWW lackeys behind bars." Dr. Hikari explained.  
  
"Dear! That's wonderful news!" Mrs. Hikari exclaimed as she threw her arms around her husband. Dr. Hikari returned the embrace as he whispered three small words.  
  
"Please hurry, Lan."  
  
To be continued... 


	3. A Bright Mind

Chapter three: A Bright Mind  
  
After Lan, Dr. Froid, Sal, Masa and the rest of the complex workers watched the police take away Dr. Grimsby, Lan looked up at Dr. Froid.  
  
"Dr. Froid? You wouldn't happen to have any spare WWW Passes hanging around, would you?" Lan asked. "Grimsby said that mine was removed from my house during the ransacking."  
  
"Sorry, Lan." Dr. Froid replied. "After I quit the WWW, I destroyed every WWW Pass I had."  
  
"Hmm...That means that I'll have to fight my way through the rest of the WWW lackeys until I find my Pass." Lan said, scratching his chin.  
  
Suddenly, Iceman's voice came through Dr. Froid's PET.  
  
"Dr. Froid! Dr. Froid!" Iceman shouted. Dr. Froid looked at his PET.  
  
"What is it, Iceman?" Dr. Froid replied.  
  
"I forgot to tell you earlier. I don't even think Megaman noticed this, but after I deleted Flame Man with an icicle, a nearly-invisible purple mist few from his body and transferred into me!" Iceman replied.  
  
"A nearly-invisible purple mist erupting from a navi and merging with Iceman?" Masa, having heard Iceman's speech, thought out loud.  
  
"What could this mean?" Sal asked.  
  
"I don't know." Dr. Froid replied. "But I'm sure that Higsby could find out quickly. He WAS the computer geek of the WWW before defecting."  
  
"I'll go talk to him, then." Lan replied. He bid farewell to Dr. Froid, Sal and Masa as he rushed back towards the subway.  
  
After a quick ride, Lan emerged from the subway and into ACDC Town.  
  
When Lan ran into the streets of his hometown, he quickly saw everyone in the town rushing towards the school.  
  
"Wha?" Lan asked himself. He looked ahead and saw Dex emerge from his house.  
  
Lan rushed over to his friend, who had just noticed the crowd rushing towards the school.  
  
"What's going on?" Dex asked.  
  
"I don't know." Lan replied. "Let's check it out."  
  
The duo rushed towards the school, and soon found themselves standing outside the large building. Lan noticed Ribbita doing a report, so he decided to listen in.  
  
"You've heard me right, ACDC Town!" Ribbita said into her microphone. "There is what seems to be a terrorist inside the school! One of the students who escaped claims that all the students made it out, but there was still one teacher absent from the group when they got outside!"  
  
Lan's eyes widened. A terrorist? In his school?! Holding one of the teachers hostage?!?! Leaving Dex's side, Lan rushed closer to the school, praying that the teacher still inside the school wasn't Ms. Mari. Lan spotted Ms. Yuri, the teacher of the Dentown school, standing closer to the front of the crowd. When she saw Lan coming, Ms. Yuri grasped his shoulders and stared at him, crying tears of fear.  
  
"Lan!" Ms. Yuri cried. "Mari's in there!"  
  
"What?!" Lan cried. Without a seconds waste, Lan rushed towards the school door and barged in.  
  
Inside, Lan was faced with two doors. One led to all the different classrooms and the other led to the Teacher's Lounge. Lan decided to try the door that led to the Teacher's Lounge, but when he tried to open it, he found it locked.  
  
"Lan! Jack me in and I'll unlock the door!" Megaman stated.  
  
"You got it!" Lan replied as he jacked Megaman into the school network via jack-in port on the door.  
  
Inside the network, Megaman materialized. Megaman wandered around the network, trying to find the door lock, which wouldn't be so hard considering the fact that Megaman had done this before.  
  
Suddenly, while Megaman was wandering down a narrow path, two viruses attacked. Megaman wasn't surprised at the green Dash that attacked, but it was the second virus that caught his attention.  
  
"A Hi-Cannon?!" Megaman exclaimed. "Impossible! NO Hi-Cannons have been able to infect the schools network!"  
  
Megaman focused his attacks on the Dash first, as he would be safe from the Hi-Cannon as long as he didn't walk in its way.  
  
After delivering a few shots to the Dash, the bird-like virus charged at Megaman, who swiftly got out of the way. Once the Dash came back, Megaman delivered a few more shots, which brought down the virus' HP. After dodging one more charge from the Dash, Megaman deleted the virus.  
  
Now all Megaman had to worry about was the Hi-Cannon. It didn't take long to wipe it out considering the fact that it never moved.  
  
Megaman picked up the zenny that the viruses dropped and continued the trek through the network.  
  
Soon, after fighting off several more viruses, Megaman came across a path that was blocked by several bars of bright energy. Just behind the locked door was the Teacher's Lounge, but it too had a locked door. Megaman looked behind the door he was at, and saw a familiar navi with glowing eyes trying to unlock the door to the Teacher's Lounge.  
  
"Hey, Numberman!" Megaman called out. This caught the tall navi's attention.  
  
"Megaman?" Numberman asked. "Get out of here! It's too dangerous!"  
  
"Nothing doing, pal!" Megaman replied. "I came here to stop this freak and save Ms. Mari! I'm not backing out now!"  
  
Immediately, Megaman got to work on unlocking the first door so he could allow Lan to pass through.  
  
"Hey! This door isn't protected by a code! What gives?!" Megaman said. He then noticed something strange about the energy bars. They didn't look like the energy bars that Numberman was trying to get into. "Hey. These aren't the NORMAL energy bars. They're like neon glo-sticks."  
  
"Try shooting them, Megaman!" Lan suggested.  
  
Megaman did as he was told, and it seemed to work, as the bars exploded like light bulbs.  
  
"I'm through, Lan! You can go through!" Megaman exclaimed.  
  
In the real world, Lan heard Megaman and pushed the door open. When Lan had gone through the door, he spotted a certain tall man with fuzzy, brown hair and glasses standing by the locked door to the Teacher's Lounge.  
  
"Higsby? What're you doing here?" Lan asked. Higsby turned around.  
  
"Once I heard that Mari was in trouble, I immediately came to try and save her." Higsby explained. "But once I passed through that door, it locked behind me. I've got Numberman trying to unlock the door to the Teacher's Lounge."  
  
"Ha!" Numberman's voice suddenly came through Higsbys PET. "They haven't created the code I can't crack! It's open, Higsby!"  
  
After jacking their navis out of the network, Lan and Higsby tried to open the door, but it still wouldn't budge.  
  
"What's the deal?" Lan thought out loud. "It won't budge!"  
  
"The freak who took over the school must be using something to barricade the door!" Higsby reasoned. "Stand aside, Lan. I'm gonna break it down!"  
  
Lan quickly stood aside as Higsby stepped back. When he was standing against the other wall, Higsby charged forward and used his shoulder to break the door open. Lan rushed in afterwards.  
  
Inside the Teacher's Lounge, Lan and Higsby looked around. They found that the object that was barricading the door was a desk. They noticed a man with his back turned to them. He was digging his way into one of the main computers. His clothes were neon and flashing, which reminded Lan of Count Zap. Lan and Higsby rushed towards him, only to be shocked back by an invisible field of energy. The man turned around, saw the two on the floor and started laughing maniacally.  
  
"Well, well, well!" The man laughed. "What do we have here?"  
  
"Who are you?! Why did you invade the school like this?! Where's Ms. Mari?!" Lan asked.  
  
"The WWW calls me Neon." The man replied. "I invaded the school because there's something here the WWW needs. As for your third question, your teacher is fine."  
  
Neon stepped aside, showing Lan and Higsby the unconscious form of a woman sprawled out on the floor.  
  
"Mari!" Higsby cried as he shot to his feet and stared at Neon. "What have you DONE to her?!"  
  
"Don't worry." Neon laughed. "She's not harmed." His facial expression turned serious as he pointed an accusing finger at Higsby. "Why? What do YOU care about her, traitor?!"  
  
Lan looked around. He and Higsby would NEVER be able to get to the WWW lackey unless they deactivated the energy shield. Lan spotted a control panel on the wall.  
  
"Higsby! Let's jack into the control panel and see if we can deactivate the energy shield!" Lan suggested as he ran over to the panel and jacked Megaman into it. Higsby immediately followed and jacked Numberman in.  
  
In the network, Megaman and Numberman noticed a new navi standing near the schools main computer. He was about the same size as Cutman, a navi that Megaman had fought in the past, with bright orange armour that occasionally flashed a glowing purple. On his head was a light bulb that lit up whenever he glowed purple. His symbol was an X made out of two glo-sticks. Surrounding him was six energy poles. Megaman would bet that these poles were the source of the energy shield protecting Neon. Megaman and Numberman rushed over to the navi, who saw them coming.  
  
"You're too late!" The navi shouted. "Neon already found the Chaos Drive in the schools computer!"  
  
"Chaos Drive?" Megaman asked.  
  
"Bright Man, you idiot!" Neon shouted at his navi. "You just told them what I was looking for!"  
  
Megaman looked at Numberman.  
  
"I'll take him on while you deactivate those six energy poles." Megaman said.  
  
"I'm on it." Numberman replied as he rushed over to one of the poles and started decoding. Megaman faced Bright Man.  
  
"You're willing to take me on?" Bright Man taunted. "I'll make this quick."  
  
"Not if I pulverize you first." Megaman grinned as he and Bright Man vanished.  
  
Megaman, as usual, materialized first. Bright Man appeared on the other side of the field, with a glowing tower at each side. Megaman cocked an eyebrow, as a navi from the past, Elecman, also had towers at each side.  
  
Megaman wondered if these towers made Bright Man invincible, so he decided to try and unleash his attacks on the navi. Megaman realized that this was actually doing damage, so he continued to pelt Bright Man with buster shots.  
  
Bright Man grinned as he placed a hand to one of the towers. The panel that Megaman was standing on suddenly started to glow. Megaman quickly stepped aside as the glowing panel exploded.  
  
Megaman figured that he should take out the towers before taking on Bright Man. Megaman moved up a panel and opened fire on the tower to Bright Man's right. After several quick shots, the tower exploded. Megaman moved to line up with the other tower and destroyed it, but not before losing another panel on his own side.  
  
Megaman continued firing his buster shots at Bright Man. Bright Man stuck his hands into the ground and pulled out two fresh towers to stand by his side.  
  
"What?!" Megaman exclaimed. "Impossible! Not even ELECMAN could regenerate his own towers!"  
  
"Bah! I'm FAR more superior than that failure Elecman!" Bright Man said. By the time he finished saying this, Megaman had already destroyed one of the towers.  
  
After losing another panel and destroying the second tower, Megaman focused his attention on Bright Man again.  
  
Instead of pulling two towers from the ground, Bright Man stuck his hand into the ground in front of him and pulled a single tower up. Rather than stay still, this tower moved up and down Bright Man's side of the arena. Once the tower was lined up with Megaman, a beam of bright purple energy fired from it and sailed across the battlefield towards Megaman. Megaman dodged it, but not before taking a little bit of damage. The tower disappeared as quickly as it appeared.  
  
Megaman fired as many shots as he could at Bright Man before the two towers regenerated. He had a little trick up his sleeve this time.  
  
As soon as the two towers regenerated, Megaman pulled a Shark Man 3 chip out and used it. Within seconds, Shark Man, Masa's navi, had appeared on the field. Shark Man and his two decoys tore across the arena at an alarming rate, severely injuring Bright Man and utterly destroying the two towers.  
  
"You're good." Bright Man said. "But I've yet to play my trump card!"  
  
Bright Man grasped hold of both towers, which had just regenerated, and focused hard. Suddenly, three panels on Megaman's side glowed, and exploded.  
  
"Hoo boy." Megaman said. "I've gotta take this guy out fast!"  
  
The blue navi continued the onslaught of buster attacks. Quickly wearing down Bright Man's HP to less than fifty. Megaman charged up his buster as Bright Man charged up for another shot at destroying three panels.  
  
Just as Bright Man fired another shot and destroyed three more panels, Megaman fired the fully charged buster, wiping out what HP Bright Man had left. The WWW navi was defeated.  
  
Megaman appeared inside the schools network again, standing in front of a defeated Bright man.  
  
"Man! I never realized that you were so good!" Bright man complimented. "Now I understand why it was YOU who foiled the WWW's last plan."  
  
"Thank you. Now tell me what was that 'Chaos Drive' you were talking about." Megaman said.  
  
"I'm sorry, but I have no clue what they are or what Wily wants with them. All I know is that there are three of them." Bright Man explained.  
  
"What about you?" Lan asked Neon. "What do you know about all this?"  
  
"I don't know anything about this." Neon replied. "I'm just doing what I'm being ordered to do."  
  
"Well?" Bright Man asked Megaman. "Aren't you going to delete me?"  
  
"No." Megaman replied. "You've been kind enough to tell me what you know, even though it didn't help much. I'll spare you."  
  
Bright Man looked at Megaman with an odd glare.  
  
"How can you be so kind as to spare me after what I've done?" Bright Man asked.  
  
"Well, to tell you the truth," Numberman, who had finished deactivating the last tower, said. "I did something similar to this quite a while ago. Lan and Megaman forgave Higsby and I, so I can understand why he's sparing you."  
  
Bright Man was silent. He quickly turned on his communicator and silently talked with the master. After a few seconds, Bright Man looked back at Megaman.  
  
"Neon and I have come to a decision." Bright Man said. "You've just showed me compassion that I've never seen as a member of the WWW. Your master, Lan, doesn't even want to attack Neon now that the force field is down. We know how we can make all this up to you."  
  
"How?" Megaman asked.  
  
"By reforming." Neon explained for Bright Man. "By quitting the WWW. We'll even try to fit back in with society around here."  
  
"That shouldn't be too hard considering the fact that I'VE done just that." Higsby said. "But I think the person you owe the biggest apology to is Mari."  
  
"Yes. Yes. Of course." Neon replied. "I'll apologize as soon as she wakes up here."  
  
Back in the network, Megaman turned his attention to Bright Man.  
  
"Hey, Bright Man. Do you remember being injected with anything by any chance? Something nearly-invisible and purple?" Megaman asked.  
  
"Oh, yeah!" Bright Man replied. "Nowadays, every WWW navi is injected with the stuff. I don't know what it's for, though. But I'd do anything to get rid of it now that I no longer work for the WWW."  
  
Megaman looked over at Numberman, who seemed to know what he was about to ask. The tall navi nodded as Megaman looked back at Bright Man.  
  
"Can you transmit your energy into Numberman here?" Megaman asked.  
  
"If it would help, I'll do it gladly." Bright Man grinned as he pulled open a panel on his stomach.  
  
A purple, mist-like substance flew from the circuit box and floated in midair. Suddenly, it flew towards Numberman and merged with him. When it was over, the navi didn't look any different.  
  
"Great! Now Higsby can study the stuff to see what it is!" Megaman exclaimed as he, Numberman and Bright Man jacked out.  
  
In the real world, Lan, Higsby and Neon were standing overtop of Ms. Mari, who was slowly regaining consciousness.  
  
"H-Higsby?" Mari asked, trying to make out the figure in front of her.  
  
"It's alright, Mari." Higsby assured. "It's all over."  
  
While Higsby was comforting Mari, Neon took Lan aside and looked at him with worried eyes.  
  
"I'm sorry, Lan." Neon apologized. "But before our navis clashed, I sent the Chaos Drive to the WWW."  
  
"It's alright, Neon." Lan assured. "I just have to get to the other two drives before the WWW does. Do you have any idea where these other two might be?"  
  
"I've got no clue." Neon replied. "But I'll help out however I can by trying to locate them via the internet."  
  
"Thanks, Neon." Lan smirked. "I really appreciate it."  
  
Meanwhile, Dr. and Mrs. Hikari sat in their cell in an embrace, worrying about Lan. It had been well more than a half an hour since they heard that Dr. Grimsby was arrested, and were now hoping for an update in their sons quest to save them.  
  
"WHAT?!" Dr. Wily's voice shouted out from a nearby room. Dr. Hikari quickly got over to the door to the cell and pressed his ear against it, hoping to listen in. "You mean to tell me that the Hikari kid not only defeated Neon, but REFORMED him?!"  
  
"That's what I'm trying to tell you, boss." A male voice replied. "The good news is that before Neon reformed, he sent us the first Chaos Drive."  
  
"That IS a relief." Wily sighed. "Now tell me...Where is the NEXT Chaos Drive?"  
  
"That I'm not sure of, sir." The henchman replied. "We might have to send out a decoy while we search for the next one."  
  
"Hey, that's an idea!" Wily complimented. "Okay. Send out the girl next. If she defeats Lan, then we'll have no problem. If she LOSES to Lan, then at least we've been given enough time to find the next Chaos Drive."  
  
Dr. Hikari figured that he'd heard enough. He went back over to his wife and sat down beside her.  
  
"How's Lan doing, dear?" Mrs. Hikari asked.  
  
"He's coming along fine." Dr. Hikari assured. "He's got a WWW lackey to reform, and he's one step closer to finding us."  
  
"Oh, I sure hope Lan's careful out there." Mrs Hikari said.  
  
"So do I." Dr. Hikari added. He then thought the rest of his sentence without saying it.  
  
"But I wish I knew what these 'Chaos Drives' are."  
  
To be continued... 


	4. Astronomical Terror

Chapter four: Astronomical Terror  
  
Lan, Higsby, Neon and Ms. Mari exited the school, where all of ACDC Town was standing. Higsby had a comforting arm around Mari, who was still very shaken up from the whole ordeal with Neon. Seeing that she was alright, all of Ms. Mari's class and Ms. Yuri rushed over to Mari. Yuri was the first to reach her sister and threw her arms around her. The rest of the class crowded around them and started talking at different times.  
  
It took awhile for Lan to convince the police that Neon had reformed, but eventually, everyone had believed him. People started leaving the scene, and soon, the only people left in the school's area were Lan, Mayl, Dex, Ribbita and her crew. Higsby had taken a shaken Ms. Mari home and Neon had gone with them to try and apologize to Mari.  
  
"What would the WWW want from inside the school?" Mayl asked.  
  
"The main computer had something the WWW wanted. It was something called a 'Chaos Drive'." Lan replied.  
  
"Chaos Drive?" Dex asked. "What're THOSE?"  
  
"I honestly don't know." Lan replied. "All I know is that there are three of them."  
  
"I wonder what the WWW needs them for?" Mayl thought out loud.  
  
"It must be something BIG." Dex stated.  
  
"Hey, Lan!" Ribbita called out. Lan went over to her.  
  
"What is it, Ribbita?" Lan asked.  
  
"I've just received word that the doors to the city hall in Dentown have been mysteriously locked. There were more than thirty people inside when the doors locked!" Ribbita said.  
  
"Really?" Lan asked as he raised an eyebrow. "Why are you telling me this?"  
  
"Because there's a force field blocking the lock program on the network that is so unusual that only a WWW navi could create it." Ribbita replied "I thought that the famous net-battler would like to know that a WWW lackey is somewhere in Dentown."  
  
"Thanks, Ribbita!" Lan said. "I need to get down there!"  
  
With that, Lan rushed off towards the subway.  
  
Later, Lan emerged from the subway and into the streets of Dentown. Lan had forgotten where City Hall was, so it took him a little longer than he hoped to get there. But when he DID arrive, there were many people crowded around City Hall. Lan rushed towards one of the kids in the group, who happened to be one of the kids in Ms. Yuri's class.  
  
"What's going on?" Lan asked.  
  
"There seems to be a strange force field on the network." The kid replied. "It's blocking the lock program and now the doors can't be opened."  
  
Lan walked past the crowd and towards a jack-in port beside the front doors. One of the policemen stopped hm when Lan approached it.  
  
"What are you doing, young man?" The policeman asked.  
  
"I'm gonna jack in and see what I can do about the lock program." Lan explained.  
  
The policeman let Lan through and Lan jacked into the building.  
  
Inside the network, Megaman materialized on a narrow walkway. Megaman ran along the walkway until he reached a wider section of path. Megaman looked around, and his eyes widened. Two Aquatowers and a Mine were coming straight at him!  
  
The battle started. Megaman decided to take out one of the Aquatowers first. He unloaded his buster into the virus while the other Aquatower got ready to attack and the Mine stood there like nothing was happening.  
  
When both Aquatowers looked like they were going to attack, Megaman quickly got out of the way. Two streams of water went across the battlefield at a semi-slow pace, but since there were two of them, Megaman had a little more trouble dodging them.  
  
While this was happening, the Mine went under the ground and placed a mine of Megaman's side of the arena. Luckily, it was placed on the back row, and Megaman didn't need the back row for this fight.  
  
Megaman used a Skull Man 3 chip. Skull Man, Miyu's navi, appeared on the field and launched his head into the air. The skull enlarged to ten times its original size and crushed the Aquatower Megaman hadn't touched yet, deleting it in a flash. Megaman continued pelting the other Aquatower until it was deleted.  
  
Megaman focused his attention on the Mine. The Mine went under the ground again, so Megaman took this opportunity to charge up his buster until the Mine's mine was placed and the Mine re-surfaced. Megaman fired his charged- up buster and drained almost half of the Mine's health.  
  
Figuring he wouldn't need anything big, Megaman pull out a Hi-Cannon chip and used it. The power from the Hi-Cannon was enough to wipe out the Mine. Megaman picked up the Aquatower chip that the virus dropped and continued on.  
  
Megaman continued for five minutes, fighting off Metools, Dashs, Aquatowers, Mines and Fireswords. Eventually, he reached a large, square area. Against the edge of the area was a small device, which Megaman figured was the lock program. It was surrounded by a strange, green force field. Lying scattered all over the floor were small circles of puddle-like energy. He saw a swirling portal on its side beside the lock program, and Megaman's eyes widened when he saw a strange figure stepping into the portal and vanishing. Megaman rushed over to the portal and managed to see the network that the navi had vanished to before the portal vanished. He recognized the background of the other network.  
  
"Lan!" Megaman called out to his 'brother'. "The navi responsible for locking the doors has vanished to Miyu's antique shop!"  
  
"Let's get over there!" Lan said. "Jack out!"  
  
After jacking Megaman out, Lan rushed to the right. Soon, Lan was just across the street from Miyu's antique shop.  
  
Lan was about to cross the street when the traffic energy beams suddenly blocked him off. Lan waited for the lights to change, but to his surprise, they never did.  
  
"Something's up." Lan said. "Megaman, I'm jacking you into the light post here. Try to find out why the light's not changing."  
  
"Will do, Lan!" Megaman replied as Lan jacked him in.  
  
Megaman appeared on a red platform. As Megaman raced down the walkways, he realized how similar this was to traveling through the Dentown traffic poles to fight Colourman, a WWW navi from the past.  
  
(Author's note: Yes, I know the game says his name is "Colorman", but what do you expect? I'm Canadian!)  
  
After fighting off a few viruses, Megaman approached another red platform. Like the one at City Hall, this one was covered with puddle-like energy on the floor.  
  
Not wanting to risk the energy being deadly, Megaman tiptoed around the energy and towards the panel on the side. Megaman flipped the switch, and the panel turned blue.  
  
"Lan, I've activated the lights!" Megaman said. Immediately after he said that, Lan jacked him out.  
  
In the real world, Lan rushed across the street and approached Miyu's antique shop. Lan burst through the front door, and looked around. Everything seemed normal. Miyu was standing behind the counter, seeming alert as ever. The antique vase with the jack-in port was sitting against the corner of the wall, and Miyu even had a customer in the shop. It was a young girl about the same age as he was. She had long, chestnut hair that was bundled into a ponytail. She wore a light blue hoody, blue jeans and a pair of sneakers. The thing that caught Lan's eyes the most was the fact that she was in a wheelchair. The girl turned her head around, saw Lan, and smiled slyly.  
  
"I figured that you'd turn up sooner or later." The girl said as she wheeled over to Lan.  
  
"What do you mean?" Lan asked. When he saw the sly look in her eyes, Lan's eyes sprang open. "YOU did this?!"  
  
"What're you talking about, Lan?" Miyu asked.  
  
"The front doors to City Hall have been locked by a mysterious force field on the network." Lan explained, not taking his eyes off the girl. "If my assumptions are correct, this girl works for the WWW!"  
  
Miyu gasped as she cupped her hands over her mouth. The wheelchair-bound girl simply snickered.  
  
"That's right." The girl said. "I'm Kate Allen, a worker for the WWW."  
  
"You work for the WWW?!" Lan asked, still in disbelief.  
  
"Yep." Kate said proudly. "Wily sent me here because he said that you were a terrorist and was attempting to stop him and steal a formula he was working on."  
  
Lan couldn't believe he was hearing. This girl was under the impression that the WWW was good. Wily was using her!  
  
"I don't know what Wily said about me, but none of it is true!" Lan stated. "Wily's the terrorist!"  
  
"Yeah, right!" Kate laughed. "I'm not going to believe such a weak lie! Now, if you want to net-battle, I've jacked my navi into that vase over there."  
  
Lan sighed. If defeating the girl at a net-battled was the only way to get her to listen, he decided to send Megaman into the vase to net-battle with Kate's navi. He walked over to Miyu's vase and jacked Megaman in.  
  
Megaman appeared inside the vase and looked. There was nothing in the area. Well, nothing except for the navi that was standing in front of him. Well, it wasn't really 'standing'. More like 'hovering'. The navi was green, and had no legs. Instead of legs, the navi had a black sphere attached to his body. The navi had a small head, and no eyes. He had two small, yellow eyes. One was in the center of a larger, black circle. On top of his head was two metal wires, generating electricity. His symbol was a few small starts inside a black circle.  
  
"You ready, Astro Man?" Kate asked.  
  
"Uh...Yes, ma'am." The navi replied in a slightly scared voice when he saw Megaman. Both navis vanished.  
  
Megaman once again appeared on the battlefield, with Astro Man appearing on the other side. Megaman started the battle by charging up his buster while Astro Man quickly hovered from panel to panel.  
  
Once Megaman was fully charged up, he unloaded his buster at Astro Man, taking down more than 50 HP in one hit.  
  
Astro Man hovered to the edge of his side and fired a shot at the ground. Some kind of strange energy came at Megaman in the patter of an Aquatower or Firetower. Megaman avoided this and continued to pelt Astro Man with buster shots.  
  
After a few more energy waves, Astro Man fired a shot into the air. Megaman looked up and saw several small balls of energy falling towards the ground. Megaman moved as quickly as he could to avoid them, but it wasn't quick enough. He managed to avoid all of them except the last one. The energy ball took away a hefty 50 HP from Megaman's health. Megaman continued the onslaught.  
  
It soon became a close match. Megaman had 80 HP remaining and Astro Man had 70 HP remaining.  
  
"I can't let you win." Astro Man said. "As much as I hate fighting, I am forced to use my final move."  
  
"Bring it!" Megaman taunted.  
  
Astro Man waved his hands, and what looked like a tractor beam appeared above one of the spaces on Megaman's side. Once the beam was over the panel, the panel vanished.  
  
Megaman's eyes widened as the beam moved to another panel. He pulled out a Dynawave chip, stood in front of Astro Man and used it. The force power from the Dynawave was enough to send Astro Man packing.  
  
Both navis appeared back inside Miyu's vase. Astro Man breathed heavily.  
  
"I suppose you're going to delete me now." Astro Man said.  
  
"No. I can't delete you. You've been mislead." Megaman replied.  
  
"W-What do you mean?"  
  
"I'm not the terrorist. Wily tricked Kate."  
  
"How do I know that you're not lying?"  
  
"Look for some old newspaper articles about the WWW."  
  
Astro Man did as he was told, searching through his memory banks for any old news. Astro Man's eyes widened when he came across an old clipping.  
  
"'Boy and blue navi eliminate WWW threat.'?" Astro Man said. "Hoo boy." He then called to his female master. "Miss Kate! Lan and Megaman aren't the terrorists!"  
  
In the real world, Kate had heard what Astro Man had said. Her eyes widened in shock.  
  
"What was that, Astro Man?" Kate asked.  
  
"These two aren't the terrorists!" Astro Man replied. "The WWW is!"  
  
"That's what I've been trying to tell you." Lan said.  
  
Kate surprised Lan and Miyu when she buried her face in her hands and started shaking.  
  
"I-I-I don't believe it." Kate said shakily. "I-I've been working for the bad guy."  
  
"It's not your fault." Lan assured, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You didn't know."  
  
Back inside the vase, Megaman looked at Astro Man.  
  
"Astro Man? Do you think you could open up your circuit box for a second?" Megaman asked. "All WWW navis are supposed to have a purple mist attached to their circuts, and I'm wondering if you could give it to me."  
  
"Sure thing." Astro Man said as he opened up his circuit box.  
  
Megaman looked inside Astro Man's open circuit box. The purple mist shot from the circuit box and flew towards Megaman. Megaman felt a tingling sensation when the mist merged with him, but it stopped when it merged completely. When it was finished, he gave a thumbs-up to Astro Man.  
  
"Thanks, buddy." Megaman said.  
  
Meanwhile,  
  
Dr. Hikari was sitting with his wife, whom was starting to get worried. When he heard voices coming from the other room, Dr. Hikari got up and sneaked over to the door. He placed his ear to the door and listened.  
  
"Sir, the girl's found out that WE are the terrorists." Wily's henchman said. "She's befriended Lan now."  
  
"Well, did you find the next Chaos Drive?" Dr. Wily asked.  
  
"Yes sir. It's location is the Dentown Metroline Station."  
  
"Crud. We shouldn't have sent Kate to Dentown. Lan's already really close to it." Wily said. "I know how we can get to it first. Send Speedy."  
  
"Yes sir!"  
  
Dr. Hikari had heard enough. He walked back over to his wife.  
  
"What's going on?" Mrs. Hikari asked.  
  
"Lan's doing fine. He's already got another WWW lackey to reform." Dr. Hikari said with a smile.  
  
"Oh, I hope Lan makes it through all this." Mrs. Hikari. "He's going through so much trouble to find us."  
  
"He's our boy, dear." Dr. Hikari said. "I have a feeling that he can go the distance."  
  
To be continued... 


	5. Turbo Power

Chapter five: Turbo Power  
  
After realizing that she'd been tricked by Wily, Kate immediately sent Astro Man back to City Hall to unlock the doors. Now, no one actually knew that Kate was the one who locked the doors, so Kate slipped by the crowd without them being suspicious. Kate looked up at Lan, who was with her while they were walking (or in Kate's case, wheeling) towards the Dentown Metroline.  
  
"Why are you trying to take down the WWW, Lan? Is Wily planning to destroy your town?" Kate asked.  
  
"Not quite." Lan replied. "He abducted my parents, and the only way for me to actually get to the WWW lab is to find the WWW Pass that I had found a while ago."  
  
"That's terrible!" Kate cried. "I can't believe I actually trusted that creep!"  
  
"I told you that it wasn't your fault." Lan reminded. "And don't worry. I'll get Wily."  
  
With that, Lan bid farewell to Kate as he went down the stairs to the Metroline.  
  
Lan stood in the large Metroline station, which was filled with people, waiting for the Metroline train to come along. He was in deep thought, still wondering what this mysterious purple mist was and what the so-called 'Chaos Drives' were. Lan looked at his navi.  
  
"First Iceman, then Numberman, now you." Lan said. "I wonder what this mist is for."  
  
"I don't know, but I have a feeling we're going to find out soon." Megaman replied. "But the one thing that REALLY puzzles me is what the WWW needs with these 'Chaos Drives'."  
  
"Let's hope that Neon's found out something." Lan said.  
  
Just as Lan was about to step on the Metroline train to ACDC Town, which had just arrived, he heard a loud voice coming from the center of the station.  
  
"Nobody move!" A loud voice commanded. "This is a hold up!"  
  
Lan spun around, and saw a tall man with shades, a short beard and a black fedora. He held what looked like a gun in his hand. By now, almost everyone in the station was on the floor, with his or her hands on their heads.  
  
The man darted over to the ticket counter on the other side of the turnstiles with amazing speed. He held the gun up to the face of the man behind the counter, and demanded that the back door be opened.  
  
Lan raised an eyebrow. A holdup at the Metroline station? The station didn't have any money. All the tickets were free.  
  
"What could a robber want at the Metroline station?" Lan asked his navi.  
  
"Do you think the Metroline could have anything important on the network?" Megaman asked.  
  
"Maybe it's a Chaos Drive!" Lan exclaimed.  
  
Without a moments waste, Lan rushed towards the turnstiles and towards the door where the robber had vanished into.  
  
A couple minutes earlier, in the same Metroline station, a familiar stuntman and his two stunt coordinators were waiting for the Metroline train to the airport. Super Dave had his left arm in a sling, and both Donald and Fuji were silent.  
  
"Well, I think that stunt went over well." Donald said, breaking the silence. Super Dave shot Donald a cold glare.  
  
"Well? Well?!" Super Dave said. "I was SUPPOSED to do a bungee jump off the tallest building in Dentown, but SOMEONE forgot to tie the end of the bungee cord to something sturdy. What was originally a bungee jump turned into a free-fall. And to top it all off, when I hit the road, a car ran over my arm!" He was silent for a few seconds. "And here's another thing! When I told you guys to 'send down an ambulance', I didn't mean it literally!"  
  
Just then, the Metroline train arrived. Super Dave and Fuji stepped onto the train, and Donald was about to follow when he heard a voice coming from the center of the station.  
  
"Nobody move!" A loud voice commanded. "This is a hold up!"  
  
Donald froze. He slowly looked over his shoulder, and saw a tall man, turning his head around constantly, keeping an eye on everyone. Donald saw that most of the civilians were already on the floor, but a small boy was still standing. Donald knew that he'd seen that boy before, but he just couldn't remember where. He was too busy trying to remember the boy that he didn't notice the robber take off towards the front of the station.  
  
"Donald!" Super Dave called out from inside the Metroline train. "Get on this train while you still can!"  
  
But Donald didn't hear him. Donald was too busy thinking. He saw the small boy take off after the robber. Donald could help out. He DID buy his own navi. Suddenly, Donald came to a decision. Clutching his new PET, Donald charged off after the boy as the train, containing his two friends, drove off.  
  
Lan was now at the door that the robber had vanished into. Lan tried to open the door, and was not surprised to find it locked.  
  
"Hey, kid!" A voice called out. Lan turned around and saw a middle-aged man jumping the turnstiles.  
  
"Hey, you're that Donald guy that I saw outside the chip shop in ACDC Town!" Lan said.  
  
"Oh, yeah! THAT'S where I saw you from!" Donald realized. "But anyway, I'm here to help."  
  
"You don't understand. You'll need a PET to get into the network so we can unlock the door." Lan explained.  
  
"Exactly." Donald smiled as he pulled his PET from his pocket and showed it to Lan.  
  
"Hey! You DO have a navi!" Lan said.  
  
"You got it." Donald said. "Now are we just gonna stand around or are we gonna take on this robber?"  
  
"Let's do it!" Lan said.  
  
"I'm Donald Glanz." Donald said.  
  
"And I'm Lan Hikari." Lan said.  
  
Lan and Donald rushed over to the nearest jack-in port. Lan approached it first.  
  
"Okay, Megaman! Let's unlock this door!" Lan said as he jacked Megaman into the network. Donald approached the port.  
  
"Okay, Search Man. It's time for me to test you in action." Donald said as he jacked his navi into the port.  
  
Megaman materialized inside the station network with Donald's navi beside him. Megaman looked at the new navi. This guy was BIG. He was bigger than Gutsman, but not as big as Woodman. He had gray armour, but strangely enough, this navi was also wearing clothes: camouflage pants and a camouflage vest. There were sticks on the top of his hat, and his face was marked with camouflage paint. In his right hand, he held a long shotgun. Megaman's eyes widened when he saw that he also had two heads. Lan shook his head, trying to remember that this navi was on his side.  
  
"You ready?" Megaman asked the large navi.  
  
"Let's go!" Both heads said at the same time, which made it sound like two different navis were talking.  
  
Megaman raised an eyebrow in amusement. Well, at least he wouldn't have any trouble hearing Search Man talk.  
  
Both navis tore through the pathways, trying to find the lock program to open the door.  
  
The duo searched for two minutes, taking out any Longswords, Bodyburns, Ironbodys and Mine2s they encountered. Eventually, the duo came to the platform where the lock program was supposed to be, but it wasn't there.  
  
"What? Where'd it go?" Both heads asked. Megaman figured that whenever Search Man talked, both heads talked at the same time.  
  
"I don't know." Megaman said.  
  
Both navis looked around the platform and out over the rest of the network, but they still didn't find the lock program.  
  
"Where the heck is it?!" Search Man shouted, getting frustrated.  
  
Megaman looked up, and his eyes widened. The lock program was high above the platform, being carried by a Bodyburn.  
  
"There it is!" Megaman said as he started firing his buster at the Bodyburn. Unfortunately, none of the shots hit the target. "Crud! That Bodyburn's flying too high!"  
  
"Stand aside, Megaman." Search Man said.  
  
Search Man pulled out his long shotgun, aimed it at the Bodyburn and fired. The first shot hit the target and the Bodyburn fell to the ground in a twitching heap. It had also dropped the lock program. Megaman opened fire on the lock program and destroyed it. Suddenly, a walkway appeared in front of the duo, allowing them to go further. Megaman looked at his video screen, which showed Lan's face on it.  
  
"Lan! The door's unlocked, but don't jack us out! A new path has opened!" Megaman said.  
  
Back in the real world, Lan and Donald had heard what Megaman had said.  
  
"Come on, Donald! We might still be able to get to this guy before he sends the Chaos Drive to the WWW!" Lan stated.  
  
"'Chaos Drive'? 'WWW'?" Donald asked.  
  
"I'll explain later! Let's go!" Lan said as he opened the door and the duo rushed into the room.  
  
Inside the room, there was many computers. This room was obviously the room that controlled the Metroline trains. The robber was swiftly moving between computers with amazing speed, checking each computer as he did so.  
  
"Hey, you!" Lan shouted, causing the robber to turn in their direction.  
  
"H-How did you get through the door?!" The robber demanded. "My navi had a Bodyburn fly high out of your firing range!"  
  
"My navi carries a shotgun with amazing accuracy." Donald explained, folding his arms. "Now who are you, and why did you invade the station?"  
  
"The name's Speedy. I'm the quickest lackey in the WWW." The robber replied. "One of these computers holds a Chaos Drive, which I assume you found out."  
  
Suddenly, the three males in the room heard a beeping noise coming from Speedy's PET. The WWW lackey grinned.  
  
"You're too late, anyway! My navi found the Chaos Drive, and has already sent it to Wily!" Speedy laughed. "We only need one more Chaos Drive for our new machine to be complete! And your two navis are now on their way towards MY navi! Straight into a trap!"  
  
"Who's your navi?" Lan asked. "Quickman?"  
  
"HAH! You wish!" Speedy laughed.  
  
In the network, Megaman and Search Man were still running along the pathway. Soon, they had come to an open area with several network computers. In the middle, was a strange new navi. This new navi was strange. He was tall, yet he was hunching over. He wore shades, and had what looked like a race helmet on. His body looked like a racecar, and there was jets of fire coming from his feet, making him hover above the ground. His symbol was a black and white checkered print inside a circle.  
  
"Turbo Man! Take them out!" Speedy ordered.  
  
"Yessir!" Turbo Man replied. Megaman turned to Search Man.  
  
"I'll take him on." Megaman said. "If any other viruses try to interrupt, delete them."  
  
"Sure thing." Search Man said as Megaman and Turbo Man vanished.  
  
Megaman materialized, and Turbo Man appeared immediately appeared after him.  
  
Turbo Man started zipping around the arena. Megaman tried to unload his buster at the WWW navi, but Turbo Man was so quick that all the shots missed.  
  
"What?! He's too quick!" Megaman cried.  
  
When Turbo Man lined up with Megaman, he stopped. Megaman took this opportunity to fire as many shots as he could, which wasn't very many considering the fact that Turbo Man tore across the battlefield, straight at Megaman. This action took Megaman by surprise, so the blue navi didn't have time to dodge. A hefty 100 HP was taken from Megaman's health bar.  
  
"Man! If he keeps this up, I'm toast!" Megaman said. He thought for a second, then came up with an idea. "It's time for some chip merging!"  
  
Megaman pulled out a Metguard G, a Dash G and a Gutsman 3. All three chips merged to form one, the Gutstoss.  
  
Megaman waited for Turbo Man to line up with him, and as soon as the WWW navi stopped, Megaman used the Gutstoss. Turbo Man froze in place. Gutsman appeared on the field, picked up his small, blue friend and hurled him across the field at Turbo Man. The attack took away a whopping 500 HP from Turbo Man's 900 HP.  
  
Megaman grinned as Gutsman vanished. This was working.  
  
"What the heck?! Is that even legal?!" Turbo Man cried.  
  
"What do YOU care about legal things?" Megaman asked. "You're a WWW navi."  
  
Turbo Man growled and lashed out his arm. A tire came screeching past Turbo Man and homed in on Megaman.  
  
Megaman's eyes widened as he tore around his side of the arena, trying desperately to avoid the tire, while unloading his buster at Turbo Man, whom was standing still while this was happening. Eventually, the tire came to a halt. Megaman unloaded his buster onto the tire until it exploded.  
  
Megaman decided to plan ahead. He grabbed two Skull Man 3 chips.  
  
Turbo Man started zipping around the arena again. Megaman waited for Turbo Man to line up with him, and once Turbo Man stopped, Megaman used one of the Skull Man 3 chips. Skull Man appeared, dropped a huge skull on top of Turbo Man and vanished. This dropped Turbo Man's HP to a mere 200. One more Skull Man 3 chip would be enough to wipe the WWW navi out.  
  
Turbo Man was furious now. This time, the WWW navi lashed out BOTH arms, causing TWO tire to tear across the arena at Megaman.  
  
Knowing that he wouldn't be able to avoid two tires, Megaman used his final Skull Man 3 chip. After Skull Man attacked, Turbo Man was defeated, and just in time too, as the two tires were dangerously close to Megaman's side of the arena.  
  
Megaman appeared back in the network, with Turbo Man standing in front of him, looking exhausted.  
  
"H-How?!" Turbo Man said. "I'm WAY faster than Quickman! How'd you beat me?!"  
  
"I've got a folder of battle chips." Megaman explained.  
  
"Well, you're too late, anyway!" Turbo Man laughed. "I sent the Chaos Drive to the WWW LONG before we fought! Once the WWW gets the final Chaos Drive, your operator's parents are in for it!"  
  
"Oh, shut up!" Search Man's voice said as a shot rang out.  
  
Turbo Man was struck by something that was sailing through the air, and almost immediately, exploded. Megaman turned around to see search Man with a smoking shotgun. There were loads of viruses lying on the ground all over.  
  
"Impressive, Search Man." Megaman said as he stuck up his thumb.  
  
Suddenly, Megaman noticed something zoom past him and fly straight at Search Man. Megaman saw that it was the strange, purple mist. It merged with Search Man, who didn't seem to scared to see it coming at him. When it was finished, Megaman called to Lan.  
  
"Lan! Jack me out!" Megaman said. "And tell Donald to jack out Search Man."  
  
In the real world, Lan had heard Megaman and jacked him out. Donald did the same with Search Man. Speedy stared at the duo with wide eyes.  
  
"Y-You deleted Turbo Man?! But he's the fastest navi the WWW has!" Speedy said.  
  
"There is NOTHING Megaman and I can't overcome!" Lan stated.  
  
"Freeze!" A voice from the door ordered. Lan and Donald turned around and saw two police officers with their guns pointing at Speedy. "You're under arrest!"  
  
"WONDERFUL timing." Lan said, rolling his eyes.  
  
"Thanks." One of the officers said.  
  
The two officers grabbed Speedy and started pulling him away. Speedy looked over his shoulder at Lan.  
  
"Say hello to Dr. Grimsby for me." Lan laughed.  
  
"This ain't over, kid!" Speedy said. "The WWW only has one more Chaos Drive to find! And once they find it, your parents are as good as dead!"  
  
Meanwhile...  
  
Dr. Hikari paced back and forth in the cell, while his wife sat against the wall, looking at him. The doctor had been pacing for a while, as it had been quite a few moments since they heard of their son's progress.  
  
"Honey, please stop pacing." Mrs. Hikari said. "You're making me nervous."  
  
Dr. Hikari stopped pacing and looked at his wife. "Sorry dear, but I'm just worried about Lan. I hope we'll hear about his progress soon."  
  
"WHAT?!" Dr. Wily's voice came from the other side of the door. Dr. Hikari immediately turned to face it, a sly grin on his face.  
  
"That's my cue." Dr. Hikari said as he rushed over to the door and placed his ear to it.  
  
"Tell me that again. SLOWLY." Dr. Wily said.  
  
"Lan has...(gulp)...Defeated and arrested Speedy, sir." The henchman replied. "The good news is that we got the Chaos Drive."  
  
"Do you have any idea where the last Chaos Drive is?" Dr. Wily asked.  
  
"No, sir." The henchman replied. "We'll have to send more decoys."  
  
"Very well." Dr. Wily said. "Send the clown."  
  
Dr. Hikari walked away from the door and back over to his wife.  
  
"How's he doing, dear?" Mrs. Hikari asked.  
  
"He's managed to get another WWW lackey arrested." Dr. Hikari explained. "But they're sending another lackey out to stop him."  
  
"Do you think Lan can pull through and save us?" Mrs. Hikari asked.  
  
Dr. Hikari was silent. All he could think about was his son, and what he must be going through to find them. He turned back to his wife.  
  
"I know he can, dear."  
  
To be continued...  
  
Author's notes: MAN! Sorry if this fic is taking me so long to finish, but you'll understand when I say this. I'm only halfway done and already this has become my longest story! Please read and review. I'll try and get the next chapter up as soon as possible. 


	6. Clowning Around

Chapter six: Clowning Around  
  
Lan spent a good five minutes trying to explain to Donald what the WWW was. After Donald finally got it, the two left the room and went back into the station. Before getting on the train to ACDC Town, Lan looked up at Donald.  
  
"Donald, I need to tell you something." Lan said.  
  
"Shoot." Donald replied.  
  
"Your navi merged with a mysterious purple mist. Until I find out what it does, I need you to STAY in Japan." Lan explained.  
  
"Sure thing." Donald replied. "I'll go take a look around Dentown. I never really got a chance to before."  
  
After Donald walked back up the stairs and into the streets of Dentown, Lan got onto the train as it took off.  
  
Lan arrived in ACDC Town. He got off the train and rushed up the stairs. When he got onto the street, Megaman spoke up.  
  
"Let's go look for Neon." Megaman suggested. "He may give us a lead for the final Chaos Drive."  
  
"You may be right." Lan replied. "He might be in Higsby's Chip Shop."  
  
Lan rushed as quick as he could to the Chip Shop, not stopping until he arrived.  
  
Sure enough, when Lan entered the Chip Shop, he saw Neon. The former WWW lackey was talking with Higsby.  
  
"Hey, Neon." Lan said. Neon turned around.  
  
"Oh, Lan!" Neon said. "I've found out that one of the Chaos Drives is in the Dentown Metroline Station!"  
  
"I know." Lan replied. "I was just there, and the Chaos Drive was stolen." Lan turned away for a few seconds, then turned back. "Have you found out anything about the third one yet?"  
  
"Well, I don't know where it is exactly, but from what I've gathered so far, it's somewhere in ACDC Town."  
  
"Well, that narrows the field quite a bit." Lan said as he scratched his chin.  
  
"Hey, Lan." Higsby said. "If it helps, I've heard that there's a WWW lackey hiding out around the mall."  
  
"Hey, that just might help!" Lan exclaimed. "How do I get there, again?"  
  
"There's a road beside the school." Higsby explained. "Follow that and you should get to ACDC Town's mall."  
  
As soon as Higsby said that, Neon's eyes widened.  
  
"Wait a minute! Lan! I heard a few of your friends talking about going to the mall!" Neon exclaimed.  
  
"What?!" Lan cried. "They could be in danger! Which of my friends are they?"  
  
"I believe it was Mayl, Dex and Jake." Neon explained.  
  
"Thanks, guys!" Lan said as he rushed out the door.  
  
As quickly as he could, Lan rushed down the road beside the school. He ran for about five minutes until he reached a large complex: the ACDC Town Mall. Lan rushed towards the front doors and ran into the mall.  
  
Lan rushed through the mall, keeping a keen eye open for his three friends. The mall was full of people, and there was even a clown standing at a corner, making strange noises with a kazoo he had in his mouth to people walking by.  
  
Lan was about to give up when he suddenly noticed something that caught his eye: A girl about his age walking from store to store, being followed by two boys carrying loads of bags. Lan sighed in relief. Mayl, Dex and Jake. He then snickered, seeing Mayl on one of her little shopping sprees. Lan walked over to his friends, whom had just noticed him.  
  
"Hey, Lan." Mayl said with a grin. "You should see the amazing prices that some of these stores have."  
  
"How can you buy so much stuff, anyway?" Dex asked with a groan as he tried to get a better grip of some of the bags he was carrying.  
  
"Dex is right, Mayl." Jake added. "How can you possibly use all this stuff?"  
  
"You never know when a lot of this stuff would come in handy." Mayl replied brightly. She then turned to Lan. "So, why are you here, Lan?"  
  
"Higsby heard that there's a WWW lackey hanging around here somewhere." Lan replied as he looked around. "But I don't see anything out of order here."  
  
"A WWW lackey?!" Mayl gasped, not wanting to shout and alarm the civilians.  
  
"I'm afraid so." Lan replied.  
  
"What could the WWW want here?" Jake asked.  
  
"I dunno. Could be a Chaos Drive." Lan said.  
  
"A Chaos Drive?" Dex asked. "Think, Lan. Why would a Chaos Drive be here?"  
  
"Anything's possible." Lan replied. "The first two were in the school and Dentown metroline station."  
  
"I guess so." Dex stated. "But if it's not here, where else could it be?"  
  
"I was just at Higsby's Chip Shop and Neon tells me that it's somewhere in ACDC Town." Lan said.  
  
There was silence for a few seconds, then Lan spoke up again.  
  
"Guys, just to be safe, I think we should jack into the mall's network and see if the Chaos Drive is in the mall." Lan said.  
  
"Lan's right, mates!" Jake exclaimed. "Let's find a jack-in port and search the network!"  
  
As quick as they could, Lan, Mayl, Dex and Jake rushed to the nearest jack- in port, which happened to be hanging on the wall near a security guard. As the four kids rushed over to the jack-in port, the guard stopped them.  
  
"And just what do you kids think you're doing?" The guard asked sternly.  
  
"Mister, we think there might be something of high importance inside the mall's network that the WWW is after." Lan explained.  
  
"How can you prove this?" The guard asked.  
  
"He's Lan Hikari!" Mayl explained. "Do you REALLY think Lan Hikari would lie about something like this?!"  
  
The guard seemed shocked at Mayl's statement, and turned to Lan. He appeared to be studying the small boy over. After a few seconds, the guard's eyes widened.  
  
"Oh, man! You ARE Lan Hikari!" The guard exclaimed. "Well, if that's the case, then go ahead and jack in. Your friends can too."  
  
"Thanks, mister!" Lan thanked as he and his three friends rushed to the jack-in port and jacked his or her navi into the network.  
  
Megaman, Roll, Gutsman and Burner Man materialized inside the mall's network. The four navis looked around, but all they saw was the programs for the different stores.  
  
"Well, nothing seems to be out of order here." Roll stated.  
  
"But viruses could still be anywhere, dudes." Burner Man said. "Best keep out groovy eyes open."  
  
"Why do you keep saying things like that?" Gutsman asked the 'groovy' navi.  
  
"Like what, dude?" Burner Man asked. Gutsman rolled his eyes. The way Burner Man was talking, it almost made Gutsman look like a genius.  
  
The four navis went through the malls network, fighting off Snake Eggs, Woodtowers, Dynawave Metools and even a few Ironbodys and Drain2s.  
  
After travelling through the network for about five minutes, each of the navis, even Gutsman, had fought off quite a few viruses and had each gained a lot of zenny. However, they didn't find anything that might've passed as the third Chaos Drive.  
  
"We've searched the network top to bottom." Megaman said in defeat. "And still no Chaos Drive."  
  
"We might as well have out operators jack us out." Gutsman suggested.  
  
The other three navis were about to agree, when they suddenly heard a high- pitched, squeaky laugh coming from above. The four navis looked up, and saw a new navi falling from above. The new navi landed on its feet and looked at the group of friends.  
  
This new navi, which had now been identified as a male, was a strange- looking one. He wore a red and purple jester suit which was red on one half and purple on the other, and had long, ape-like arms that reached the floor. His jester hat had the same colours as his suit, only they were inverted. His wide, cheeky grin was enough to make the four friends wonder why the heck they were even in the same area with this freak. His symbol was a question mark inside a red circle.  
  
"Who the hey are you?" Roll asked.  
  
The new navi merely squeaked his response. The four navis continued to stare oddly at him.  
  
"Can't talk, huh?" Megaman asked. The navi quickly nodded his head.  
  
"Where'd this guy come from?" Gutsman asked, looking up into the air where this navi had mysteriously appeared.  
  
The navi pulled out what looked like a piece of paper and started writing on it with his finger. When he was finished, the navi showed the paper to the other navis.  
  
"He says that his name is Clown Man." Megaman read. His eyes widened at the next sentence. "And he's a navi for the WWW!"  
  
"What?!" the other three said at once. Clown Man slowly nodded his head while grinning evilly.  
  
Megaman quickly turned to the others. "You guys back me up. I'll take him on."  
  
Roll, Gutsman and Burner Man agreed as Megaman and Clown Man vanished.  
  
Megaman appeared on the battlefield, with Clown Man on the other side. The battle started, and Megaman quickly started to unload his buster.  
  
After managing to do quite a bit of damage to the WWW navi, Megaman noticed Clown Man getting ready to attack. The blue navi got ready for the atack, but was surprised when Clown Man made a giant beach ball appear on Megaman's side of the arena and it started to bounce around. Megaman easily avoided this and continued to unload his buster.  
  
After Megaman brought Clown Man's HP down some more, Clown Man rushed to the edge of his side of the arena and brought his extra-long arms to the ground with such great impact that all of the panels on Megaman's side became cracked.  
  
Megaman smirked as he pulled out a Gutsman3 chip. It was time to fight fire with fire.  
  
"Gutsman! Help me out!" Megaman shouted as he used the chip.  
  
Gutsman appeared on the arena and slammed his fists against the ground. Not only was Clown Man's side cracked, but a shock wave was also sent out, taking off a hundred HP from Clown Man's energy.  
  
After Clown Man's energy was brought down pretty low, the WWW navi wound up for his final attack. Megaman wondered what pathetic attack Clown Man would lash out next.  
  
Megaman sweatdropped when Clown Man started hurling pies all over Megaman's side of the arena. Megaman was hit by one of the pies, and surprisingly, a good hunk of his energy was taken down.  
  
Megaman's eyes widened. Maybe this attack wasn't so pathetic after all. As quickly as he could, Megaman charged up his buster. Once it was fully charged, Megaman unloaded it on Clown Man, wiping the WWW navi out.  
  
Megaman materialized back inside the network, standing over a heavily- breathing Clown Man.  
  
Megaman looked back at his friends. He saw Roll and Gutsman, but Burner Man was nowhere in sight.  
  
"Burner?" Megaman called out.  
  
"WHOO-HOO!!!" A surfer voice screamed.  
  
Megaman looked in the direction of the voice, and saw Burner Man racing towards everyone, riding on a surfboard on top of a giant Burner Wave.  
  
"HANG TWO, DUDES!!!" Burner Man shouted as he hung both his feet over the surfboard. Megaman's eyes widened.  
  
"Scatter!" Megaman cried.  
  
Megaman, Roll and Gutsman got out of the way as Clown Man finally regained his breath. The WWW navi looked up and saw the giant wave coming down on him.  
  
"Crud." Clown Man said flatly as the wave came down on him.  
  
Once the wave shrank, Burner Man jumped off. Megaman, Roll and Gutsman saw that all that was left of Clown Man was the strange, purple mist.  
  
"Man! That was SOOOOO tubular!" Burner Man stated. "Can I do that again?" Megaman, Roll and Gutsman all sweatdropped.  
  
Suddenly, the purple mist shot towards Burner Man, merging with him. Burner Man stared at the mist as it merged. Even after the mist finished merging, Burner Man was still in awe.  
  
"Duuuuuuuuuuuuude..." Burner Man said in awe.  
  
Meanwhile...  
  
Dr. Hikari and his wife sat in their cell, still worrying about Lan. It hadn't been very long since they heard of Lan's adventure in the Metroline Station, so they figured they wouldn't hear from Wily for a while. However, they were wrong.  
  
"WHAT?!" Wily's voice shouted. This got the attention of both Lan's parents.  
  
"Wow. That was fast." Dr. Hikari said as he got up and rushed over to the door. The good doctor placed his ear to the door.  
  
"You say that Lan and his pathetic blue navi has defeated Clown Man?!" Wily demanded.  
  
"Yessir." The henchman replied. "But don't worry. I've located the final Chaos Drive."  
  
"You have? Where is is?" Wily asked.  
  
There was silence for a few seconds. The henchman was obviously talking quiet. Suddenly, Wily started laughing.  
  
"Is THAT where it is?" Wily asked, still laughing. He suddenly stopped laughing. "Well, we don't want Lan stopping us this time. Send out...The prototype."  
  
"The prototype?!" The henchman asked. "But that navis still experimental! It hasn't been tested yet! It'll take the best operator in the WWW to operate that thing!"  
  
"That's why I'm sending YOU out with it." Wily instructed. "You're the best operator I've got, and if we're going to stop Lan, we'll be needing all the strength we can get. You WILL go, won't you?"  
  
"Of course, sir." The henchman replied. "I'll do my best to take down Lan."  
  
Dr. Hikari turned away from the door and went back to his wife.  
  
"How is it, dear?" Mrs. Hikari asked, clearly worried.  
  
"Not good. Wily's sending out an untested prototype navi with his best operator." Dr. Hikari replied. Mrs. Hikari gasped and covered her mouth.  
  
"I hope Lan wins. I don't want to never see him again." Mrs. Hikari said.  
  
"Me neither, dear." Dr. Hikari replied. "Me neither."  
  
To be continued... 


	7. Reveal the Wheel

Chapter seven: Reveal the Wheel  
  
After realizing that Burner Man was the one to absorb the purple mist, Lan tried his best to explain to Jake what he knew about it. Lan, Mayl, Dex and Jake left the mall and walked back into the main area of ACDC Town. Lan turned to his three friends.  
  
"Guys? I'm gonna go back to the Chip Shop and see if Neon is still there." Lan explained. "I have to see if he knows where the last Chaos Drive is."  
  
"Well, I'm gonna head home and unpack my things." Mayl said, clutching all seven bags of the things she bought at the mall.  
  
"I'll go to the Chip Shop as well." Dex stated. "I was going to go there anyway."  
  
"I'll come to, mate." Jake added. "I wanna see if Higsby has any upgrades for Burner Man."  
  
As the three boys walked towards the Chip Shop, Mayl started her trek back to her house.  
  
During her walk home, Mayl didn't have any problems carrying her seven bags of stuff. Mayl approached her house cheerfully and walked towards her front door.  
  
Still carrying her shopping bags, Mayl twisted the doorknob on her door and managed to open it. However, she heard a commotion coming from inside the house. Mayl looked inside and saw a tall man in a cloak, searching through her cabinets, pulling out the different disks that were inside. The man turned to the PET he was clutching.  
  
"You found it yet?" The man asked his PET. A low growl was heard from the PET. "No? Well, keep looking! It HAS to be here somewhere!"  
  
Mayl gasped as she dropped the seven bags she was carrying. The man spun around to stare at her. Mayl gasped louder as the man charged at her. Before Mayl had time to scream, the man clamped a large hand over her small mouth. The man pulled her inside as he shut the door.  
  
Meanwhile, the three boys were approaching Higsby's Chip Shop. They saw Neon stepping outside the shop with Higsby. The two men were talking. Neon heard footsteps and saw the three boys running up to them.  
  
"Ah, Lan!" Neon said. "I found the final Chaos Drive!"  
  
"Really?!" Lan asked. "Where is it?"  
  
"It's in one of those houses over there?" Neon said, pointing at the houses several yards away.  
  
"No kidding?" Dex asked. "Which one is it?"  
  
"I believe it's that pink one down there." Neon replied pointing at one of the far houses.  
  
Lan's, Dex's and Jake's eyes all sprang open.  
  
"That's Mayl's place!!" Lan cried.  
  
"And she just went there!!" Jake added.  
  
"Let's go!" Dex said. Lan and Jake didn't argue, and the three immediately rushed off towards Mayl's house.  
  
With Lan leading the way, the three boys quickly reached Mayl's house, where all seven of her bags were still sitting.  
  
Lan rushed to the front door ad tried to open it. The boy freaked out when he found it locked. Lan started pounding one the front door.  
  
"Mayl! Mayl!" Lan cried, pounding his fists on the door. He heard muffled cries coming from inside. Lan quickly turned to his two companions. "There's someone in there, and he's got Mayl!"  
  
"Let's jack into the door!" Jake quickly suggested. "We HAVE to unlock it to get to Mayl!"  
  
Lan and Dex quickly agreed as they jacked into the door in an attempt to unlock it.  
  
Megaman, Gutsman and Burner Man all appeared inside Mayl's home network. The trio looked around, trying to find Roll or any WWW navi.  
  
"Roll?" Megaman called out. "Roll? You here?"  
  
"We won't be able to find anything by just standing here." Gutsman said. "Let's start looking."  
  
Gutsman started walking forward, leaving Megaman and Burner Man standing with strange looks on their faces.  
  
"Since when did Gutsman get so smart?" Megaman asked.  
  
"Dex must've bought a rare upgrade, dude." Burner Man said.  
  
The three navis rushed through the network as quick as they could, encountering Large Bombs, Dynawave Metools, Icecubes and Mines.  
  
Megaman, Gutsman and Burner Man tore through the network for five minutes, trying to find Roll, a WWW navi or the lock program.  
  
The trio of navis eventually came to a platform, which had the lock program on it.  
  
"The lock program!" Megaman cried as he rushed towards the lock program.  
  
When Megaman was just a few mere feet away from the program, a trio of viruses appeared in front of him. Megaman stared at the three viruses.  
  
"Crud!" Megaman said. "Three Woodtowers!"  
  
Megaman appeared on the battlefield, with the three Woodtowers on the other side. Megaman thought ahead and pulled out a Dynawave chip. At the same time, he charged his buster.  
  
The battle started. One of the Woodtowers came from the sky, and the second one followed shortly. Luckily, they were on the same row. Megaman quickly used the Dynawave chip, which sent a shock wave piercing through both Woodtowers. One shot from the fully charged buster and one of the Woodtowers was deleted instantly. However, towers of wood came straight at Megaman, not giving him a chance to avoid. A hunk of energy was taken from Megaman's HP.  
  
Megaman pulled out an Elecman3 chip and waited until both remaining Woodtowers were in view. Once they were, Megaman used the chip. Elecman, a WWW navi from the past, appeared and summoned two lightning bolts, which struck both viruses. The Woodtower that Megaman had attacked before was deleted as the third one was drained of most of its HP.  
  
After avoiding the tower of wood, the Woodtower vanished back into the sky. Megaman knew that once the Woodtower came back down, it would refill its energy. Megaman charged up his buster, preparing for the Woodtower. As soon as the Woodtower came down, Megaman fired his buster, deleting the virus.  
  
Megaman re-appeared in the network, and noticed Gutsman and Burner Man attempting to destroy the lock program. No matter how much the two navis threw at it, the lock program wouldn't explode.  
  
"What's going on?" Megaman asked. Burner Man turned to his blue friend.  
  
"Dude, the lock program won't explode!" Burner Man stated. The sounds of Gutsman shouting 'GUTSPUNCH' were heard. "No matter how much Gutsman and I throw at it, it won't do anything!"  
  
"Maybe if we all attack it at the same time, it will work." Megaman suggested.  
  
Burner Man and Gutsman agreed as the three navis lined up beside each other.  
  
"Mega Buster!"  
  
"Guts Punch!"  
  
"Burner Wave!"  
  
The combined force from all three navis was enough to destroy the lock program.  
  
"Yeah, dude!" Burner Man shouted. He then turned to his operator. "Jake, dude! We've destroyed the bogus lock program!"  
  
Back in the real world, Jake had heard his navi.  
  
"Mates!" Jake told Lan and Dex. "Let's go in!"  
  
The trio tried to open the door, but were still unable to do so.  
  
"Déjà vu." Lan said. "This same thing happened in the school." He then turned to his large friend. "C'mon, Dex! Let's break it down!"  
  
Lan and Dex lined up and charged forward. The two boys plowed through the door, pushing the desk that was blocking it away. Jake ran in after them.  
  
The three boys looked around Mayl's house. They saw a tall man in a cloak searching through Mayl's cabinets, pulling out whatever disks he could find. Mayl was lying on her couch, bound hand and foot with rope. A handkerchief was clenched tightly in her teeth and was tied around the back of her head. The three boys rushed into the house. While Jake attended to Mayl, Lan and Dex charged towards the intruder.  
  
Jake pulled the gag from Mayl's mouth, and right after he did so, Mayl screamed out to Lan and Dex.  
  
"GUYS! LOOK OUT!" Mayl screamed. "IT'S A TRAP!"  
  
Immediately, the intruder spun around, holding a knife. While turning around, the man attempted a slash at the two boys. Luckily, because of Mayl's warning, Lan and Dex had slowed down enough to avoid the attempted attack. Immediately after the man took the slash, Lan and Dex continued charged towards the man and knocked him down. Or at least tried. To the boys amazement, the man suddenly vanished in a cloud of purple smoke just as Lan and Dex were about to knock him over. The two boys were now on the floor.  
  
"What the?!" Dex exclaimed. "Where'd he go?"  
  
"Over here." The man's voice replied. Lan and Dex looked up and saw the intruder standing behind them.  
  
"What are you?" Lan asked. He saw Jake attempting to cut through Mayl's bonds with his pocketknife.  
  
"The WWW calls me 'Portal'." The intruder replied. "I've been keeping an eye on you, boy. I have the ability to warp in and out of reality, and have been reporting you to Wily. I'm here because I've found out that the third and final Chaos Drive is somewhere in this house, weather it be the real world of the network."  
  
"Who's your navi?" Jake asked, still trying to cut through Mayl's ropes.  
  
"Your navis will find out soon enough." Portal laughed.  
  
Inside the network, Megaman, Gutsman and Burner Man were running down a narrow pathway, which had appeared after the lock program was destroyed. They still hadn't found either Roll or the WWW navi, but they weren't going to give up hope.  
  
The trio reached the end of the pathway and walked onto a platform. They quickly saw the pink, female navi lying on the ground, unconscious and beaten.  
  
"Roll!" Megaman cried as he rushed over to his friends side. Gutsman and Burner Man followed. As soon as he was at Roll's side, Megaman dropped to his knees, grabbed her by the shoulders and started shaking her. "Roll? You alright?"  
  
Gutsman got down on the opposite side of Roll and started examining her. "Look at this, Mega." The large navi stated. "Roll's got bite marks on her arms and legs."  
  
"Bite marks?" Megaman asked. "What kind of navi could-"  
  
An Earth-shaking, reptilian roar interrupted Megaman. The heroes spun around and found themselves staring at a tall, thin, alligator navi. Its torso was the only spot the navi had armour, and the armour was red and brown. On each of its green, scaly arms, there was a spiked wheel on the shoulder. The navis eyes were pitch black. The navi had no symbol.  
  
"Hehehehe." Portal laughed. "Meet the WWW prototype navi!" He then called to the navi. "Get'em, Wheel Gator!"  
  
(Author's note: I figured that since all navis in the Battle Network series are based off of characters from the original series, the characters from the X series would be prototypes, am I right?)  
  
Megaman slowly stood up and walked towards Wheel Gator, a furious look in his eyes.  
  
"You hurt my friend." Megaman stated. "Oooooh. You're in for it now!" Megaman and Wheel Gator vanished.  
  
Megaman materialized on the battlefield first, with Wheel Gator on the other side.  
  
The blue navi started firing his buster at Wheel Gator, who zipped around his side of the arena with ease. After taking of a little energy, Megaman saw Wheel Gator approach his side of the arena. The alligator navi lashed out both arms sending two rows of spikes at Megaman in the style of a fire tower or wood tower.  
  
Now, if it was ONE spike tower, Megaman could've avoided it easily. But since there were two, he had a little more difficulty. Megaman was hit by one of the spike towers, taking quite a bit of energy.  
  
Megaman looked at his chip inventory, and frowned. The only good chip he had ready was a Woodman3. Megaman decided to use it anyway. The giant Woodman appeared on the arena, jumped, and sent three rows of wood towers at Wheel Gator, which took a hundred HP from the WWW navis energy meter.  
  
After taking a few more buster shots, Wheel Gator started growling. Megaman was starting to wonder what the WWW navi was thinking of doing, but he quickly found out, as Wheel Gator zomed out of his area, into Megaman's area, and stopped right in front of Megaman. Before Megaman had time to react, Wheel Gator had taken a bite out of him. This took a healthy hunk out of Megaman's HP.  
  
The fight continued until Megaman had 70 HP and Wheel Gator had 50 HP. Megaman had avoided the rest of Wheel Gator's bites, and more than half of his spike towers, and had managed to dish out enough battle chips to put him in the lead. But even after all this, Wheel Gator had yet to dish out his final move.  
  
Wheel Gator suddenly let out an Earth-shaking roar, suddenly, all of the panels on Megaman's side of the arena started flashing. Well, all except one. As quickly as he could, Megaman tried to rush to that panel, but he wasn't quick enough. Spikes erupted from all eight flashing panels, one of which took whatever energy Megaman had left.  
  
As Megaman materialized back inside Mayl's home network, he felt a searing pain flood through his body. Wheel Gator stood over him, snarling.  
  
Megaman couldn't believe it. He actually lost to a WWW navi. Wheel Gator opened his mouth, baring his razor sharp teeth, and raised it above Megaman's head. Megaman closed his eyes, waiting for the end.  
  
"MEGAMAN!" He heard Roll scream. Suddenly, he heard a second voice.  
  
"GUTS PUNCH!"  
  
Megaman opened his eyes, and looked up. Gutsman was plowing his fist into Wheel Gator's stomach. Suddenly, Wheel Gator, as some would say, spontaneously combusted. Parts flew everywhere, and soon, all that was left of the WWW prototype was the purple mist.  
  
Megaman was in shock. Gutsman, who had been known to lose almost every fight that was tossed at him, had just deleted a WWW navi prototype that even Megaman couldn't defeat. Maybe they had a new Gutsman...  
  
As expected, the purple mist merged with Gutsman. While this was happening, Megaman looked at where Roll was found lying on the ground. Roll was now fully awake, and attempting to stand upright, with Burner Man supporting her with his arm.  
  
In the real world, Portal stared at his PET in shock while Lan, Dex, Jake and a now-freed Mayl stared at him.  
  
"Impossible!" Portal cried. "My navi had yours defeated!"  
  
"What?!" All four kids replied.  
  
"If that stupid large navi hadn't deleted him, that stupid blue navi would be out of the WWW's way!" Portal stated in frustration.  
  
The four kids, Dex most of all, were in total shock. Gutsman, of all navis, deleted the WWW navi? Portal suddenly grinned evilly.  
  
"Well, at least I got what I came for." Portal said. "Wheel Gator found the Chaos Drive after dealing what that pathetic pink navi." He then looked down at Lan. "The WWW now has all three Chaos Drives! Try and stop us now!"  
  
Suddenly, Portal disappeared in a cloud of purple smoke, leaving nothing but a card on the floor. Lan picked up the card and looked at it.  
  
"Hey! My WWW Pass!" Lan exclaimed.  
  
"Why does it always have to be the LAST lackey that has vital things like that?" Dex asked.  
  
Meanwhile,  
  
Dr. Hikari continued pacing in the cell, while his wife was still sitting against the wall. It had been a while since they heard of their sons encounter at the mall, and Dr. Hikari hoped that Lan would get the last Chaos Drive before the WWW did.  
  
Suddenly, the husband and wife heard the cell door unlocking. Both looked in the direction of the door and saw Dr. Wily enter the cell along with Portal. The mad doctor grinned at Dr. Hikari, who stood firm and calm.  
  
"What do YOU want?" Dr. Hikari demanded.  
  
"Guess what, my friend." Dr. Wily quizzed. "We've found all three Chaos Drives."  
  
"'Chaos Drives'?" Mrs. Hikari asked. "What're you talking about?"  
  
"Oh, I guess I forgot to tell you." Dr. Wily replied. "You see, the WWW has built a wonderful machine, and has just finished work on it. All we need is a guinea pig to test it."  
  
Dr. Hikari stood firm. "I won't let you use me for such experiments."  
  
"You?" Dr. Wily asked. "Who said that I wanted you?"  
  
Dr. Hikari froze, and looked over his shoulder at his wife, who looked more scared than she ever was before. He looked back at Dr. Wily.  
  
"Keep your hands away from her!" Dr. Hikari said.  
  
Dr. Hikari advanced on Dr. Wily, but the mad doctor struck him on the side of the head with the end of the gun he was carrying. The good doctor fell on his side, quickly losing consciousness. The last thing he saw before blacking out completely was Dr. Wily and Portal approaching his wife.  
  
To be continued... 


	8. A Star Studded Showdown

Chapter eight: A Star Studded Showdown  
  
Lan, Mayl, Dex and Jake left Mayl's house and were walking towards Higsby's Chip Shop. Portal had vanished after Gutsman had deleted his navi, but Lan's WWW Pass was dropped, giving the kids access to the WWW Lab.  
  
The four kids approached Higsby's Chip Shop, where Neon was obviously still there. The two former WWW lackeys saw the kids coming. Before Neon could open his mouth, Lan started speaking.  
  
"We were too late, Neon." Lan explained. "The WWW now has all three Chaos Drives."  
  
"But we'd like to know if you've found out what that purple mist is for." Dex added.  
  
"Well, I hacked into the WWW files, and found that the purple mist that lies within the WWW navis is the key to destroying their new machine." Neon explained.  
  
"A new machine?" Lan asked.  
  
"Yes. It obviously required the three Chaos Drives, and was built to withstand all attacks." Neon stated. "Except for one fact. The machine's only weakness is the purple mist belonging to the WWW's own navis. If all six navis transferred the purple mist they wield into the machine on the network, it should be enough to destroy it."  
  
"So I'll have to take all five of the people I know whose navis had been given this purple mist?" Lan asked. "That means I'll need Dex, Jake, Higsby, Dr. Froid and Donald." Lan then turned to Dex and Jake. "You guys stay here and wait for me to come back." He then turned to Higsby. "Higsby? I need you to go to the Government Complex and get Dr. Froid. I'll go to Dentown and see if I can find Donald, someone I met there."  
  
Everyone agreed. As Dex and Jake stayed behind, Lan and Higsby rushed towards the Metroline Station.  
  
The duo rushed down the stairs, got their tickets and ran towards separate trains: Higsby towards the complex and Lan towards Dentown.  
  
After getting off the train, Lan rushed up the stairs and into Dentown's streets. He figured that he'd need some help finding Donald, so he rushed over to the nearest person he could find, which was a man standing at the traffic light.  
  
"Excuse me." Lan said, getting the man's attention. "I'm looking for a certain adult somewhere in Dentown. He's middle-aged, American and has a mustache."  
  
"Oh yeah. Him." The man said. "The last I saw of him, he was walking towards the second block."  
  
"Thanks, mister!" Lan said as he rushed off.  
  
Lan entered the second block, still looking for the operator of Search Man. He suddenly noticed a middle-aged man walking out of a store. Lan immediately recognized the man and rushed over to him. Donald saw Lan coming, and smiled.  
  
"Hey, Lan." Donald greeted as Lan approached him, almost completely out of breath.  
  
"Hey, Donald." Lan replied. "Listen, I need you to come with me to ACDC Town."  
  
"Sure. What for?" Donald asked.  
  
"The purple mist that your navi absorbed is critical to destroying the WWW's latest threat." Lan explained. "I need you to accompany my strike team to take down the WWW."  
  
"You don't have to ask me twice!" Donald said as the duo rushed back to the Metroline Station.  
  
After several minutes on the train, Lan and Donald emerged in ACDC Town. Lan looked up at Donald.  
  
"Let's get over to the Chip Shop." Lan said. "I told the rest of the guys that I'd meet them there."  
  
Lan and Donald rushed over to Higsby's Chip Shop, where everyone else, including Higsby and Dr. Froid, was waiting. The rest of the group saw the duo coming.  
  
"Great, Lan! You found him!" Neon said.  
  
Higsby counted heads. "Is that everyone?"  
  
"Yeah." Lan replied. "Now let's get over to the WWW Lab!"  
  
After bidding farewell to Mayl and Neon, the group of Lan, Dex, Higsby, Dr. Froid, Jake and Donald rushed towards the ACDC Town school, Lan leading the way.  
  
The six entered the school parking lot as Lan rushed over to the fountain.  
  
"Is that where the entrance to the WWW Lab is?" Donald asked.  
  
"Not quite." Lan replied. "This leads to a secret Metroline that will take us there." Lan felt around the back of the fountain. "There should be a hidden button here somewhere...Here it is!"  
  
Lan pressed a button, and much to Donald and Jake's surprise, a doorway opened up, leading down some stairs.  
  
"Come on!" Dex said. "Let's go!"  
  
The rest of the group agreed as they rushed down the stairs, one at a time. At the bottom of the stairs, everyone saw that they were standing in a secret Metroline Station. A train was sitting on the tracks, just waiting for someone to climb aboard. All six males climbed aboard the train as it took off down the tracks.  
  
Several minutes later, the train stopped. Lan stepped off the train first, followed by the rest of the group.  
  
"Here we are." Dr. Froid said. "The WWW Lab."  
  
"Let's see." Higsby said, scratching his chin. "Wily must be hiding out on the top floor, so we should take that door over there." The ex-WWW member pointed to a door on the far side of the cliff.  
  
"Well, Lan. Thought you could pull something off without me knowing, eh?" A boy's voice said, slightly chuckling.  
  
The six members of the strike team turned around and saw a boy that looked slightly older than Lan. He had white hair and wore a red vest over a black sweater.  
  
"Chaud?!" Lan exclaimed, staring at his friend. "What're you doing here?!"  
  
"What do you think?" Chaud quizzed. "I'm on a mission to destroy the WWW, and have been following you ever since your little fiasco with the WWW prototype."  
  
"How'd you get here without us knowing?" Dex asked.  
  
"You guys didn't look in the back seat of the hidden Metroline. There a hidden compartment there, and I moved ahead of you down the stairs via a shorter route." Chaud folded his arms. "The WWW has invented a new machine, and it's more destructive than the first. I suggest that you and your friends get out of here, Lan."  
  
"Nothin' doin', pal!" Lan stated. "Wily has my parents up there somewhere, and I've made it MY duty to save them!"  
  
Chaud, while still not unfolding his arms, stared at Lan with wide eyes.  
  
"I assume there's a story here." Chaud asked, still in shock.  
  
As quick as he could, Lan filled Chaud in on everything that had happened. When he was finished, Chaud looked even more shocked than before.  
  
"I apologize, Lan." Chaud said. "If I'd have known your parents were abducted, I would've shown up sooner to help."  
  
"It's quite alright." Lan replied. "But as long as you're here, you can come with us to help out."  
  
Chaud agreed, and the group rushed over to the door, found it unlocked and went inside. The six males continued going up, and surprisingly, all the doors were unlocked. Well, all except the last one.  
  
"Come on, mates!" Jake said. "Let's jack in!"  
  
The rest of the team agreed as they all jacked their PETS into the door.  
  
All seven navis materialized inside the WWW network. Once Burner Man and Search Man were introduced to Protoman, the team started their journey through the network, which looked remarkably like the network where Megaman had fought Elecman.  
  
"Remember to search everywhere." Megaman instructed. "This network is full of hidden passages."  
  
"You would know." Protoman said. "You're the only one here who's gone through the whole network before."  
  
The team of navis continued their trek, but strangely, the amount of viruses they encountered was minimal.  
  
"Strange." Protoman said while looking around. "The WWW usually has more security than this."  
  
"Yeah." Numberman added. "I suppose we'll find out why the network is so deserted if we continue on."  
  
The seven navis continued on, picking up whatever mystery data they found. After searching for another couple of minutes, the group was approaching a large, open platform. In the middle of it was a lock program.  
  
"There it is!" Iceman cried. "The lock program!"  
  
"Let's destroy that bogus thing, dudes!" Burner Man exclaimed.  
  
As the group approached the lock program, they suddenly heard a loud buzzing sound. The group looked around and saw hundreds of Metools coming from all directions.  
  
"W-Where'd all these guys come from?!" Megaman asked.  
  
"Why are you so worried?" Gutsman asked. "They're only Metools."  
  
"But look at how many of them there are!" Megaman exclaimed. "They'll be launching shockwaves at us from all directions!"  
  
As the Metools surrounded the group, the heroes put up their weapons or fists. Suddenly, everyone heard a second sound: Something that sounded like a metal saw cutting through a piece of steel. The heroes saw a Metool divide in half as a fin-like thing rushed towards another Metool. It was quickly cutting the viruses down.  
  
The fin wasn't alone, either. Wooden spikes were popping up all over the place deleting a virus with each spike. On top of that, beams of purple energy were soaring around the platform, destroying Metools left and right.  
  
One of the Metools that had survived the attacks charged at the heroes, only to step in a puddle of strange energy that seemed to appear from out of nowhere. The virus was deleted, as were several others that had stepped in puddles of energy.  
  
A long tongue came from out of nowhere, attacking and destroying different viruses at once. Flames were also coming from different areas, wiping out Metools in a flash.  
  
And as if that weren't enough, several white flashes erupted from various areas of the platform, making viruses explode everywhere. By now, there was enough viruses left for the group of heroes to take out.  
  
"Well, it looks like there are very few viruses left." Search Man said. "Let's thrash'em!  
  
The seven navis charged towards the remaining Metools. Megaman opened fire with his buster while Gutsman plowed through the viruses with his fists. Numberman planted bombs in close proximity with some viruses, causing them to explode while Iceman used snowballs to destroy viruses. Burner Man used his Burner Wave to destroy Metools while Search Man picked off viruses with his shotgun. Protoman used his sword to slash through the viruses with ease. Soon, all the Metools were destroyed. Megaman looked around for the navis that had saved them.  
  
"Anyone here?" Megaman called out.  
  
"Looks like you needed our help after all, eh Megaman?" A female voice asked.  
  
Everyone turned in the direction of the voice and found Roll standing there with six other navis: Woodman, Sharkman, Toad Man, Heat Man, Bright Man and Astro Man.  
  
"What the?!" Megaman exclaimed. "What're you guys doing here?!"  
  
"Is that any way to treat the navis who just saved your scrawny neck?" Shark Man asked with a chuckle. While he was saying this, Protoman had gone to destroy the lock program.  
  
"Mayl and Neon thought that you'd need some help." Bright Man stated. "You did."  
  
"We'd better get our operators to jack us out." Toad Man suggested.  
  
Megaman relayed this message to Lan, who in turn, got everyone on his team to jack their navis out.  
  
Lan pushed open the now-unlocked door as he and his team walked through the door, only to find seven people on the other side: Mayl, Neon, Kate, Sal, Masa, Ribbita and a tall man with a goatee.  
  
"Mayl!" Lan exclaimed. "What're you doing here?!"  
  
"What I'd like to know is how you guys got this far ahead of us." Dex said, cocking an eyebrow.  
  
"There's another door at the bottom of the base." Kate replied. "It has an elevator which I use all the time to get in and out of the base."  
  
The rest of the team stood in shock.  
  
"You mean we came all the way up the winding ramp and went through the door's network for no good reason?" Dr. Froid asked.  
  
"I guess so." Chaud replied.  
  
"Hey, by the way." Higsby said before looking at the man. "What're you doing here, Match? I hope you're not still working for the WWW."  
  
"Not since the WWW's last destruction." Match replied. "Like you and Dr. Froid, I've reformed since then. I've even ditched Fireman for Heat Man."  
  
"Well, that's enough talk." Masa said. "We have to save Lan's parents!"  
  
Everyone else agreed as they all rushed towards the door that led outside of Wily's laboratory. Chaud opened the door and went in first, followed by Lan and the rest of the group.  
  
As soon as everyone was inside the room, they froze and stared ahead and up in awe. For in the middle of the extremely open room, was an extremely large gun that looked about twice as large as the WWW's first gun. The huge barrel was pointing into the sky. They saw the weird, old man standing on one of the gun's platforms, laughing maniacally.  
  
"Wily!" Lan shouted, getting the mad doctor's attention.  
  
"Ah, you're here." Wily said.  
  
"And he's not alone." Match said, folding his arms. "We're all here to take you out and destroy that gun."  
  
"Something that you'd never be able to do, you traitor!" Wily sneered.  
  
"Cut the crud, Wily." Lan said. "Where're my parents?"  
  
"I was just getting to that." Wily laughed. "Allow me to introduce you to someone."  
  
Wily pulled a remote from his pocket and pressed a button. A door on the other side of the room opened, and a thin figure stepped out. It was a female, and her eyes were blood red. With the haircut she had, and the purple shirt with the green dress, Lan immediately recognized her.  
  
"Mother?" Lan squeaked.  
  
"I ain't nobody's mother." Mrs. Hikari sneered. This didn't sound like her normal, gentle voice. She sounded more...Evil.  
  
Lan couldn't believe what he was hearing. Neither could anyone else on his team. It didn't take anyone long to figure out that Wily used the gun to brainwash Mrs. Hikari, and intended to use the gun not to destroy the world, but turn everyone on it into mindless slaves. Tears of fright and disbelief rolled down Lan's face. Chaud leaned over and whispered something into his ear.  
  
"I've seen this before, Lan." Chaud explained. "The only way to release someone from the WWW's brainwash control is to defeat him or her in a net battle."  
  
"So all I have to do to release mother is beat her in a net battle?" Lan asked. Chaud nodded.  
  
Lan gulped as he slowly walked forward, facing his brainwashed mother. "If defeating you in a net battle is the only way to release you, then so be it!"  
  
Mrs. Hikari grinned evilly. "You're brave, boy. But we'll just see how brave you are in about two minutes." She then fished out her new PET and sent it into a net-battle with Megaman. "Star Woman! Destroy the shrimp!"  
  
Megaman materialized on the battlefield while the new navi appeared on the opposite side. The navi was female, and looked about as tall as Burner Man. She had red armour, complete with black high-heeled shoes and long, black gloves. There was a metal star attached to her helmet and another one attached to each shoulder. Her symbol was, obviously, a star.  
  
"Oh, man! I can't harm a woman!" Megaman cried.  
  
"You have to." Star Woman said. "It's the only way you can save your operators mother."  
  
Megaman was taken aback. This navi knew that her operator was brainwashed?  
  
"You know?" Megaman asked.  
  
"Yes. I'll tell you more after our fight." Star Woman said. Megaman nodded as the battle started.  
  
Megaman started firing his buster at Star Woman, who quickly moved around her side of the arena. Every time Star Woman moved, she threw a small star that moved like a ninja star. Megaman was hit by a couple of them, but managed to avoid most of them.  
  
After being attacked several times, Star Woman struck a pose, sending the two stars that were attached to her shoulders into the air. The two stars suddenly came onto the arena, both bouncing around from panel to panel. Megaman did his best to avoid them while still firing his buster at Star Woman, who stayed still while the stars were bouncing around Megaman's side of the arena.  
  
Megaman pulled out a Burner Man chip that Lan had gotten from Jake. Megaman quickly used the chip as the surfer navi appeared on the arena and did a Burner Wave, taking a hefty amount of HP from Star Woman's health bar.  
  
The fight went on for about three minutes, and both navis' HP was down pretty low. Megaman seemed to have the upper hand, though.  
  
"She's pulling her punches." Megaman thought. "I just know she is."  
  
After moving around several times, Star Woman stopped. She looked like she was charging something up, and Megaman stood prepared. Suddenly, Star Woman fired a huge beam of energy at Megaman. The beam took up the top two rows of Megaman's side, so the blue navi quickly moved onto the bottom row to avoid the shot.  
  
After the beam finished, Star Woman hunched over, trying to catch her breath. Megman used this opportunity to pull out a Dynawave chip and use it. The force from the Dynawave was enough to take out whatever energy Star Woman had left. Rather than become deleted, the female navi collapsed to the floor.  
  
The barriers on the arena deactivated, and Megaman rushed over the borderline to Star Woman's side. Megaman got down on one knee.  
  
"Are you alright?" Megaman asked.  
  
"I-I'm fine." Star Woman said, still breathing heavily. "I've just never met a navi as strong as you before."  
  
"You let me win. Why?" Megaman said.  
  
"I hate the WWW, but I like my operator. I knew that if I was defeated, the brainwashing effects would lose control of her mind." Star Woman explained. "I just hope that after this is all over, your operators mother would still want to keep me."  
  
"You're all right, Star Woman." Megaman said with a smile as he stuck out his hand. Star Woman gladly shook it.  
  
In the real world, Mrs. Hikari looked furious. She stared at Lan with an angry glare.  
  
"You defeated my navi, you punk!" Mrs. Hikari yelled. "You'll-"  
  
Mrs. Hikari was cut off when her eyes suddenly widened. Everyone, even Wily, stared at Mrs. Hikari as she grabbed her head and collapsed to her knees, screaming in pain.  
  
Soon, Mrs. Hikari stopped screaming as her blood red eyes returned to their normal colour. She slowly looked at Lan, who stared at her with a hopeful glare.  
  
"Lan?" Mrs. Hikari squeaked.  
  
"Mom!" Lan cried as he rushed towards his mother, who immediately took him into her arms. Both Hikaris cried tears of happiness as Higsby, Dr. Froid, Neon, Kate and Match walked over to Wily, who looked infuriated that Mrs. Hikari had returned to normal.  
  
"You're in for it now, Wily!" Dr. Froid said as he pointed an accusing finger at Wily.  
  
"How could you do all this to the poor kid?!" Match demanded.  
  
"I can't believe I actually trusted you!" Kate sneered.  
  
"I'll make you pay for what you made me do to Lan's poor teacher!" Neon growled.  
  
"I second that!" Higsby said.  
  
"Bah! What do you five know?" Wily laughed. "You're all just a bunch of traitors!"  
  
"Hey, Wily!" Ribbita yelled. Everyone turned his or her attention to Ribbita, who held one of her cameras in her hands. She was pointing it at Wily and the gun he was standing on. From a red light on the camera, everyone could tell that in was recording. "Smile! This is going to be tonight's top story!"  
  
Wily was even more infuriated now. His latest plan was ruined.  
  
"You'll all pay for this!" Wily shouted. The mad doctor pressed a button on the gun and rushed towards a hovering pod that was sitting close to a window. He hopped in. "There! I've just started the gun's countdown! In two minutes, the gun will fire, and I don't believe you have enough time!"  
  
With that, Wily took off through the window, into the night sky. Donald rushed over to Lan, who was still embracing his mother.  
  
"Lan! We need to destroy that gun!" Donald said, which got Lan's attention.  
  
"Wait! We need to find dad!" Lan explained.  
  
"Don't worry, Lan!" Mrs. Hikari said. "I know where he is. I'll go get him while you focus on destroying the machine."  
  
Lan was hesitant at first, but nodded.  
  
"Dex! Jake! Higsby! Dr. Froid! Donald! Come on!" Lan shouted. He and his five friends rushed over to the gun as Mrs. Hikari, Match, Sal, Chaud and Masa ran off to find Dr. Hikari. Ribbita stayed with Lan and his strike team, filming them jack their PETS into the gun and everyone else had rushed off to the metroline to make their escape.  
  
"I'd better get a raise for this." Ribbita muttered. "I'm risking my neck by staying here."  
  
The six navis that held the WWW data mist materialized inside the gun, on top of a round platform surrounded by six glowing circles that were each close to a panel.  
  
"That's probably where we have to transfer the mist!" Megaman said.  
  
"We don't have a moment to lose!" Iceman exclaimed.  
  
The six navis each stepped onto a circle. As Megaman stepped onto his circle, he felt a searing pain flow through his body. It felt like a thousand volts of electricity was being injected into him, but Megaman knew that the mist he was carrying was just being extracted.  
  
Megaman looked at his friends. Gutsman and Search Man, being the larger navis, didn't look like they were in as much pain as he was. Numberman and Burner Man looked like they were in as much pain as Megaman, as the three were about the same size. Iceman however, being the smallest navi, looked like his was going to collapse from the pain.  
  
After thirty grueling seconds, Megaman finally felt the pain go away. Megaman collapsed to the ground, as did the rest of his team besides Gutsman and Search Man. Megaman turned on his communicator and looked at Lan.  
  
"J-Jack...Out." Megaman begged.  
  
In the real world, Lan had heard his navi and told his strike team to jack their PETS out.  
  
"We've deactivated the gun, so why is the counter still going down?" Lan asked.  
  
"The gun's gonna blow!" Higsby cried.  
  
After everyone jacked their PETS out, Lan turned to Ribbita, who was still filming with her camera.  
  
"Where's everyone else?!" Lan asked.  
  
"They found your father and they rushed to the metroline!" Ribbita explained.  
  
"That's good enough for me!" Lan said. "Let's scat!"  
  
Everyone else didn't argue, and they all rushed out of the lab as quick as they could.  
  
Knowing that the elevator had already been taken, Lan and the others rushed down the several ramps until they reached the ground.  
  
Everyone rushed towards the metroline, Lan bringing up the rear to make sure that everyone ran in first. Everyone rushed towards the train and got in. Just as the train took off for ACDC Town, the WWW's new gun went up in flames.  
  
Soon, the train arrived in ACDC Town, and everyone got off. The went up the stairs, back into the school's parking lot. They went into the streets, and saw everyone standing outside Higsby's Chip Shop. Lan eyes began to water when he saw his parents embracing.  
  
"Mom! Dad!" Lan cried, rushing towards his parents, who turned their attention to him. Lan's parents quickly took their son into their arms.  
  
The rest of Lan's team also joined in with celebrating. Higsby had found Ms. Mari and quickly embraced her, Ribbita had found her cameraman and handed him the camera, Donald was greeted by his recently arrived friends and Match could've sworn that he saw Ms. Yuri smile sweetly at him.  
  
Donald walked over to Lan, who had just let go of his parents. Lan smiled at his new friend.  
  
"Donald, I can't thank you enough for helping me rescue my parents." Lan said.  
  
"No problem, Lan." Donald replied. "Glad to help."  
  
"How do you like PETS, Donald?" Dr. Hikari asked. "Lan tells me that you said that you'd like to meet the person who invented them."  
  
"And I still do." Donald replied. "I really think that PETS would catch on back in America."  
  
Dr. Hikari stuck out his hand. "Pleased to meet you, Donald. I'm Dr. Hikari, the inventor of PETS."  
  
Donald stared at Dr. Hikari with wide eyes. "You mean it?! You invented PETS?!"  
  
Dr. Hikari smiled as Donald shook his hand. "You got it."  
  
Epilogue:  
  
Months passed after Lan saved his parents. Lan continued on with his normal life of eating, sleeping, going to school and fighting viruses. His team also went back to his or her normal lives, but some had made changes...  
  
Even though Mrs. Hikari was cured of the WWW's mind control, she still held the knowledge of net battling in her mind. Mrs. Hikari kept Star Woman as her personal navi, who became almost like an online mother to Megaman.  
  
After the adventure, Dex vowed to become better at net battling and make Gutsman a more powerful navi. At first, people didn't think to much of his goal, but after they heard that Gutsman had pounded Shadowman into the floor, they started having second thoughts.  
  
Because he wasn't married and didn't have a job now that his boss was retired, Donald ended up moving to ACDC Town. There, Donald got a job working for Dr. Hikari. Donald's job was to ship finished PETS to America and Canada.  
  
Kate, being an orphan, moved in with Donald. Donald soon became the father Kate never had. The wheelchair-bound girl attended Lan's school and became an excellent student.  
  
Match and Ms. Yuri soon started dating. Lan and his friends always think that the two make a good couple. On top of that, Match became a net battler, fighting the viruses he once mastered. Together, Match and Heat Man pulled off some stuff that would make even Eugene Chaud jealous.  
  
In other words, life had returned to normal...At least, until Wily's next strike.  
  
END  
  
Author's note: Sorry this took me so long to finish, but my family's computer crashed and we couldn't get it fixed for at least two weeks. I hope that this super long chapter makes up for it. This is my second longest chapter to date. Please read and review. 


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